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.
Western Kingbird
A pale gray-headed flycatcher with a yellow belly, often seen perched on wires in open country, told by white edges on its blackish tail.
songbird
Indian Roller
A brilliant blue-winged bird of South Asian farmland, revealing dazzling blue flight feathers when it takes to the air.
other
Eurasian Spoonbill
A tall, all-white wading bird with a distinctive spoon-shaped bill, recognized by its clean white plumage and, in breeding season, a shaggy nape crest and pale yellow breast band.
wading bird
American White Pelican
A massive, brilliant white pelican with strikingly black flight feathers visible in flight, one of the largest birds in North America.
seabird
Wood Stork
A large white stork with sharply contrasting black flight feathers and tail, and a bare, dark gray-black head and neck rather than feathered skin.
wading bird
Golden Eagle
A powerful upland raptor whose dark brown plumage and golden nape feathers give it its name, with young birds showing crisp white flight-feather patches that fade with age.
raptor
Ring-necked Pheasant
A large, long-tailed gamebird whose males carry some of the most vividly iridescent body feathers and dramatically elongated tail feathers of any bird found in open countryside.
gamebird
Sarus Crane
The tallest of all flying birds, a pale grey Asian crane with a strikingly red bare head and upper neck, resident year-round across its wetland range.
wading bird
Mute Swan
An enormous, entirely white waterbird whose large, gently curved feathers are unmistakable simply by their sheer size among freshwater birds.
waterfowl
Greater Scaup
A robust diving duck of open water, the Greater Scaup shows a glossy green-black head and finely vermiculated gray back that give it a clean, pale appearance from a distance.
waterfowl
Brown Noddy
A dark, tropical seabird related to terns, easily told by its uniform chocolate-brown plumage set off by a pale gray-white cap and a long, wedge-shaped tail.
seabird
Tawny Owl
A stocky woodland owl whose bark-patterned, silent-edged feathers make it one of the most cryptically camouflaged birds in the forest.
owl
Bar-headed Goose
A pale gray goose renowned for migrating over the Himalayas at extreme altitude, identified by a white head marked with two bold black bars across the crown and nape.
waterfowl
Brown Kiwi
A flightless, nocturnal New Zealand bird with shaggy, hair-like feathers and a long probing bill used to find invertebrates in leaf litter.
other
King Eider
The King Eider is a large arctic sea duck whose male combines a colorful blue-gray and pale green head with a black body and white breast, topped by an orange bill shield.
waterfowl
Tawny Frogmouth
A nocturnal Australian bird with mottled grey-brown feathers that mimic tree bark, allowing it to remain nearly invisible while perched motionless during the day.
other
Downy Woodpecker
The smallest North American woodpecker, its black-and-white checkered feathers and short bill make it a common and easily identified backyard bird.
woodpecker
West Peruvian Dove
A large coastal dove of western South America, similar to the Eared Dove but bigger and grayer, with a small dark mark below the eye and pale grey tail tips.
dove pigeon
Black Tern
A distinctive marsh tern that turns almost entirely sooty-black during the breeding season, a striking departure from the pale gray-and-white pattern typical of most terns.
seabird
Brown-headed Cowbird
A small blackbird best known for laying its eggs in other birds' nests, with males showing a sharply contrasting brown head against a glossy black body and females entirely plain gray-brown.
songbird
African Grey Parrot
A medium-sized grey parrot with pale-edged scalloped body feathers and a bright red tail, native to equatorial Africa.
parrot
Common Whitethroat
A small, active warbler with a bright white throat contrasting a grey head, and warm chestnut fringes on the wing feathers that add color to an otherwise modest bird.
songbird
Southern Screamer
A large, gray, goose-like bird of southern South American wetlands, marked by a dark collar around the base of the neck and a short crest. Despite its bulky build it is an agile flier, often seen soaring on thermals over open marshland.
other
Wattled Crane
The largest crane in Africa, a grey wading bird with a black cap, striking white feathers hanging from the throat, and long fleshy wattles dangling below the face.
wading bird