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.
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
Ruddy Turnstone
A boldly patterned, harlequin-like shorebird known for flipping stones and debris in search of food, with breeding feathers combining rufous, black, and white in a striking tortoiseshell pattern.
shorebird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown-barred woodpecker best identified by the bright yellow or salmon-red shafts of its flight feathers, along with a black chest crescent and spotted underside.
woodpecker
Grey Junglefowl
An Indian forest gamebird whose males have neck hackle feathers tipped with an unusual glassy, wax-like yellow spangle unlike any other bird.
gamebird
Nicobar Pigeon
The Nicobar Pigeon is a striking island pigeon with long, shimmering hackle-like neck feathers in shifting metallic greens and coppers, set off by a pure white tail.
dove pigeon
Morepork
New Zealand's small native owl, named for its call and known to Maori as ruru, with dark brown feathers mottled with pale buff spotting and streaked underparts.
owl
Military Macaw
A green macaw with a small red forehead patch and blue-edged wing and tail feathers, found in foothill forests and canyon country from Mexico to South America.
parrot
Metallic Pigeon
The Metallic Pigeon is a dark island pigeon named for the glossy green-and-purple iridescent sheen across its neck feathers, often paired with a contrasting white throat.
dove pigeon
Common Starling
A glossy, iridescent songbird whose feathers shift from heavily spangled with pale spots in fresh winter plumage to sleek and nearly spot-free by the breeding season.
songbird
Great Argus
A pheasant of Southeast Asian rainforest famous for the male's extraordinarily elongated wing feathers, patterned with large eye-like spots and displayed in a dramatic fan during courtship.
gamebird
Common Raven
One of the largest songbirds in the world, the Common Raven produces long, heavy, glossy-black feathers with a pronounced iridescent sheen and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail profile.
corvid
Fox Sparrow
A large, richly colored sparrow whose reddish tail and heavily spotted breast make its feathers among the most distinctive of any North American sparrow.
songbird
California Quail
A familiar western quail known for the male's forward-drooping black head plume and scaled gray-brown body feathers, common in chaparral and suburban gardens alike.
gamebird
Brown-headed Nuthatch
The Brown-headed Nuthatch is a tiny southeastern pine specialist whose warm brown cap feathers, rather than black, set it apart from other nuthatches.
songbird
Wood Duck
One of the most ornately feathered ducks in the world, with males showing an iridescent crested head and boldly patterned body, and females recognizable by a distinctive white teardrop eye patch.
waterfowl
White-tipped Dove
A stocky, plain grayish-brown dove of tropical and subtropical woodland, best identified by the crisp white tips on its outer tail feathers and its low, mournful call.
dove pigeon
Verreaux's Eagle-Owl
Africa's largest owl, a pale gray giant of savanna and riverine woodland, instantly recognizable in life by its bare pink eyelids, with correspondingly oversized, finely patterned feathers.
owl
Slate-throated Redstart
The Slate-throated Redstart is a highland forest warbler known for its slate-gray plumage, reddish belly, and habit of fanning white-edged tail feathers while foraging.
songbird
Red Phalarope
The most oceanic of the phalaropes, the Red Phalarope shows brick-red underparts in breeding plumage and pale gray winter feathers, with a stouter bill than its phalarope relatives.
shorebird
Pied Wagtail
The Pied Wagtail is a slender black-and-white songbird best known for its constantly pumping tail, with crisp black-and-white feathering that gives it a strongly contrasting, checkered appearance.
songbird
Pine Siskin
The Pine Siskin is a small, heavily streaked finch whose brown feathers show flashes of yellow in the wings and tail, and whose winter range shifts unpredictably year to year.
songbird
Parasitic Jaeger
A sleek, agile seabird intermediate in size between the two other jaegers, identified in breeding adults by narrow, pointed central tail feathers and a swift, falcon-like flight.
seabird
Philippine Eagle
The Philippine Eagle is a huge, critically endangered forest eagle with brown upperparts, creamy-white underparts, and a shaggy crest of long brown-and-cream feathers that it raises when alert.
raptor
Field Sparrow
A small, subtly marked sparrow of old fields whose soft rufous-brown and gray feathers lack bold streaking, standing out mainly for their clean, quiet coloring.
songbird