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.
African Harrier-Hawk
A distinctive gray African raptor known for its bare, color-changing facial skin and unusually flexible double-jointed legs, used to probe tree holes and nests for prey.
raptor
Secretarybird
A tall, long-legged raptor that hunts on foot across the African savanna, with pale gray body feathers, black flight and thigh feathers, and long black crest plumes at the back of the head.
raptor
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
Yellow-breasted Greenfinch
A Himalayan finch with bright yellow underparts, a greyish head, and yellow flashes in the wings and tail visible in flight.
songbird
Rook
A glossy, all-black farmland corvid recognized in life by its bare greyish face skin and shaggy thigh feathering, and in feather form by its strong purple-blue sheen.
corvid
Pacific Screech-Owl
A small eared owl of Pacific lowland Central America, with greyish-brown streaked plumage and pale eyebrows meeting above the bill.
owl
California Scrub-Jay
A crestless, blue-and-gray jay of California's oak woodlands and gardens, showing a blue necklace across a whitish throat and gray-brown back.
corvid
Whiskered Tern
A compact marsh tern that turns a striking dark slate-gray across the body in breeding plumage, with a crisp white stripe dividing the black cap from the gray cheek.
seabird
Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse is a common eastern woodland bird known for its jaunty gray crest feathers and soft, plain-gray body feathers washed with rust along the flanks.
songbird
Palm Tanager
A close relative of the Blue-gray Tanager, the Palm Tanager shows a more subdued olive-gray to greenish tone overall with darker wings and little of the brighter blue accent of its cousin.
songbird
American Herring Gull
The North American counterpart to the Eurasian Herring Gull, the American Herring Gull shows very similar pale gray-and-white plumage with black wingtip spots, but with subtly darker gray tones and pinkish legs.
seabird
Asian Openbill
A medium-sized South and Southeast Asian stork named for the distinctive gap between its upper and lower mandibles, an adaptation for handling its favored prey, with greyish-white plumage and black flight feathers.
wading bird
Swamp Sparrow
A reddish-winged marsh sparrow with a gray face and breast, closely tied to wetland vegetation year-round.
songbird
Clay-colored Sparrow
A pale, buffy sparrow with a gray nape and crisp brown ear patch outline, common in brushy prairie habitats.
songbird
Black-chinned Sparrow
A gray-headed sparrow of arid chaparral slopes, with breeding males showing a distinctive black chin and throat patch.
songbird
Chilean Flicker
A ground-foraging flicker of Chile and Argentina, patterned in muted grays and browns to match the temperate woodland-steppe it inhabits.
woodpecker
Common Greenshank
A tall, pale gray shorebird with greenish legs and a long, slightly upturned bill, the Old World counterpart to the yellowlegs.
shorebird
Loggerhead Shrike
A compact gray predator songbird with a black bandit mask and a hooked bill, known for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire.
songbird
Lawrence's Goldfinch
A small California and Baja California finch, gray-bodied with a black face on males and bright yellow wing and rump patches.
songbird
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
A plain gray-breasted sparrow of rocky, brushy hillsides, identified by its rufous crown and a bold black malar stripe.
songbird
Sagebrush Sparrow
A pale gray-headed sparrow of Great Basin sagebrush country, with a white eye-ring and a dark central breast spot.
songbird
Black-throated Sparrow
A striking desert sparrow with a bold black throat patch framed by crisp white stripes on an otherwise plain gray face.
songbird
Great Crested Flycatcher
A large woodland flycatcher with a bushy crest, gray throat, and bright yellow belly, showing rufous flashes in the wings and tail.
songbird
Spotted Redshank
A striking wader that turns almost entirely sooty black with fine white spots in breeding plumage, transforming to pale gray in winter.
shorebird