Feather & Bird Encyclopedia
Search and identify feathers by species — with feather type, plumage, colours, size, habitat, and how to tell them apart in the field.
Buff-fronted Owl
The Buff-fronted Owl is a small South American forest owl with a striking contrast between its dark brown upperparts and warm buffy-orange face and underparts.
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Brown Wood Owl
The Brown Wood Owl is a large, dark forest owl of South and Southeast Asia known for its rich chocolate-brown plumage and heavily barred underparts.
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Blakiston's Fish Owl
One of the largest owls on Earth, a massive, shaggy fish-hunting owl of remote river forests in the Russian Far East and Japan, with correspondingly huge, loosely structured feathers.
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Ferruginous Pygmy-Owl
A tiny, day-active owl of arid scrub and thorn forest across the Americas, often revealed by its bold rufous or gray-brown coloring and long, cocked, barred tail.
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Eurasian Scops Owl
The Eurasian Scops Owl is a small, migratory owl of southern Europe and parts of Asia, known for its cryptic bark-patterned plumage and a monotonous, far-carrying whistled call.
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Eurasian Pygmy-Owl
Europe's smallest owl, a boreal forest specialist that hunts small birds and rodents largely by day. Its feathers are gray-brown to rufous with crisp white spotting and a narrowly barred tail.
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Eurasian Eagle-Owl
One of the largest owls in the world, with massive size, prominent ear tufts, and richly patterned tawny-brown plumage streaked and barred in dark brown across most of Europe and Asia.
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Eastern Screech-Owl
A small, common owl of eastern North American woodlands and suburbs, occurring in both a grey and a rufous color morph, both finely patterned to resemble tree bark.
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Indian Eagle-Owl
A large, tawny-buff eagle-owl of rocky ravines and scrub across the Indian subcontinent, its feathers boldly streaked and barred in dark brown against a warm buff ground.
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Great Horned Owl
One of the most widespread and powerful owls in the Americas, instantly recognizable by its prominent ear tufts and richly mottled brown plumage built for silent, nocturnal flight.
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Great Grey Owl
The longest owl in the world by overall length, cloaked in soft grey, finely mottled plumage and famous for its huge facial disc marked with distinct concentric rings.
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Black-and-white Owl
A striking Neotropical wood owl patterned in crisp black-and-white barring, with no ear tufts and a bright yellow-orange facial disc and bill that contrast sharply with its otherwise monochrome plumage.
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Bare-legged Owl
A small Cuban endemic owl notable for its bare, unfeathered legs, an unusual trait among owls that otherwise mostly have feathered tarsi.
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Australian Masked Owl
A large, variably colored barn-owl relative of Australian forests, ranging from pale to dark rufous, with a distinctive heart-shaped facial disc and fine spotting on its feathers.
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American Barn Owl
A pale, heart-faced owl of open farmland and grassland, instantly recognizable by its golden and grey speckled upperparts, ghostly white underside, and exceptionally soft, silent-flight feathers.
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African Grass Owl
A ground-nesting barn-owl relative of African montane grassland and marsh, dark chocolate-brown above with fine pale spotting, and long legs suited to hunting low over dense grass.
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White-faced Scops Owl
The White-faced Scops Owl is an African savanna owl instantly recognized by its pale grey plumage, striking white facial disc rimmed in black, and long ear tufts, and known for a dramatic threat display.
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Puerto Rican Screech-Owl
The Puerto Rican Screech-Owl, locally known as the mucaro, is a small island-endemic owl with soft reddish-brown or grey-brown plumage and a rounded, nearly tuftless head.
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Northern Long-eared Owl
The Northern Long-eared Owl is the North American form of the Long-eared Owl, a slender, cryptically patterned owl with long, closely-set ear tufts that roosts communally in dense conifers.
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Southern White-faced Owl
A small grey African owl with a strikingly white facial disc rimmed in black and small ear tufts, known for dramatic threat and concealment postures.
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Northern Saw-whet Owl
One of the smallest owls in North America, with soft reddish-brown, white-streaked plumage, no ear tufts, and a distinctive whitish facial disc bordered by a dark rim.
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Lesser Yellowlegs
A slender, dainty shorebird with bright yellow legs and a short, straight, needle-thin bill, smaller and less wary than its close relative.
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Bare-eyed Cockatoo
A small white cockatoo with an inconspicuous crest and distinctive bare bluish-white skin encircling the eye.
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Marsh Sandpiper
A delicate, needle-billed shorebird with very long thin legs, resembling a miniature greenshank in both shape and pale coloring.
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