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.
Barn Owl
An elegant, heart-faced owl whose golden, finely speckled upperparts and ghostly pale underside make its feathers instantly distinctive among owls.
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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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Barn Swallow
The classic long-tailed swallow of barns and bridges, with glossy steel-blue upperparts, a rusty throat, and elongated outer tail feathers tipped with white spots.
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Sooty Owl
A dark, striking barn-owl relative of Australian and New Guinean rainforest, its sooty gray-black feathers finely speckled with silvery white, unlike any other owl in its range.
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Grass Owl
A ground-nesting barn-owl relative of tall grasslands from Asia to Australia, with long slender legs and golden-buff to dark brown feathers finely spotted, adapted to a life spent low over open grass.
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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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Barking Owl
An Australian hawk-owl named for its dog-like barking call, gray-brown above and heavily streaked below, favoring open woodland and riverine forest.
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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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Ural Owl
A large, pale grey-brown owl of Eurasian forests, known for its notably long tail and streaked (rather than barred) plumage, and for its fierce defense of nests.
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Stygian Owl
The Stygian Owl is a dark, dramatically plumaged owl of Latin America and the Caribbean, named for its blackish-brown feathers and prominent, closely-set ear tufts.
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Marsh Owl
The Marsh Owl is a plain, tawny-brown ground-nesting owl of African grasslands and marshes, distinguished by its inconspicuous ear tufts and preference for open, low vegetation.
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Spectacled Owl
A large Neotropical rainforest owl named for its bold white 'spectacle' markings around the eyes, with a dark chocolate-brown hood and chest band contrasting sharply against a warm buffy-yellow belly.
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Snowy Owl
A large, striking white owl of the high Arctic, whose feathers vary from nearly pure white in adult males to heavily barred in females and young birds, all cushioned by exceptionally dense feathering for cold protection.
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Rufous Owl
The Rufous Owl is a large, richly colored hawk-owl of northern Australia and New Guinea, its warm rufous-brown feathers finely barred throughout and its head rounded without ear tufts.
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Crested Owl
A dark, richly colored Neotropical rainforest owl with unusually long, prominent whitish ear-tuft feathers and a bold white eyebrow stripe against otherwise dark brown plumage.
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Chaco Owl
A dark-eyed true owl of the Gran Chaco woodlands, closely related to the Rufous-legged Owl, with densely barred brown plumage suited to dry scrub forest.
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Barred Owl
A large, round-headed owl of eastern North American forests, known for its dark eyes and the distinctive combination of horizontal chest barring and vertical belly streaking on its plumage.
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Laughing Owl
An extinct New Zealand owl known for its odd, laughter-like call, with soft brown mottled plumage and a paler facial area; now known only from museum specimens.
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Tawny Owl
A stocky woodland owl whose bark-patterned, silent-edged feathers make it one of the most cryptically camouflaged birds in the forest.
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Striped Owl
The Striped Owl is a boldly streaked, long-eared owl of open country across Latin America, easily recognized by its buffy plumage, dark streaking, and prominent ear tufts.
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Spotted Owl
An old-growth forest specialist of western North America, dark brown overall with distinctive rounded white spotting across its plumage, dependent on structurally complex mature forest.
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Powerful Owl
Australia's largest owl, a powerful hawk-owl of eucalypt forest that preys on tree-dwelling mammals, its underparts marked with bold dark chevrons rather than simple streaks or bars.
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Mottled Owl
A medium-sized, ear-tuftless wood owl of Neotropical forest, its feathers finely mottled in dark and pale brown, with whitish eyebrows and buffy, streaked underparts.
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Little Owl
A small, flat-headed owl whose boldly white-spotted brown feathers and habit of perching in daylight set it apart from Europe's other owls.
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