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.
Black Swan
An Australian swan with distinctively curled, sooty black-gray body feathers and a striking red bill, its white flight feathers hidden until the wings are spread.
waterfowl
Black-necked Swan
A striking South American swan with a pure white body set off by a jet-black head and neck, plus a bright red facial knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Trumpeter Swan
The heaviest native North American bird and largest swan, entirely white with a solid black bill, sometimes showing a rust-stained head from iron-rich feeding grounds.
waterfowl
Whooper Swan
A large Eurasian swan, entirely white with a straighter neck carriage than Mute Swan, known for its loud bugling call given in flight and on the water.
waterfowl
Tundra Swan
A large all-white swan of the Arctic tundra, smaller and more compact than the Trumpeter Swan, often showing a small yellow spot at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Mute Swan
An enormous, entirely white waterbird whose large, gently curved feathers are unmistakable simply by their sheer size among freshwater birds.
waterfowl
Black Woodpecker
The largest woodpecker across most of Europe and northern Asia, entirely black except for a red crown patch and a pale bill.
woodpecker
Black Turnstone
A dark, sooty relative of the Ruddy Turnstone restricted to the Pacific coast of North America, showing a uniformly blackish body offset by a crisp white belly and bold white wing markings in flight.
shorebird
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
Black Redstart
The Black Redstart is a small songbird easily identified by its constantly quivering, bright rufous-orange tail set against sooty gray or brown body plumage, often seen on rocky ledges and buildings.
songbird
Black Oystercatcher
A large, entirely dark shorebird of rocky Pacific coastlines, lacking any white in its plumage, unlike its pied relatives elsewhere in the Americas and Old World.
shorebird
Black Guillemot
A small, sooty-black auk of northern rocky coasts, easily told by a bold white oval patch on each wing and bright red legs and feet.
seabird
Black Grouse
A Eurasian grouse whose male is famous for its glossy black plumage and dramatically curved lyre-shaped tail, displayed at communal leks.
gamebird
Black Caracara
An almost entirely glossy black raptor of the Amazon basin, distinguished mainly by a flash of white at the base of the tail, often seen along rivers and forest clearings.
raptor
Black Vulture
An all-black scavenger with a short, square tail and distinctive whitish patches near the wingtips, often seen circling in groups or gathered at carcasses.
raptor
Black Stork
A shy, forest-loving relative of the White Stork with glossy black plumage, a white belly, and a red bill and legs, favoring quiet rivers and wetlands far from people.
wading bird
Black Sparrowhawk
The largest African accipiter, occurring in a striking pied form with sharply demarcated black upperparts and white underparts as well as an all-black melanistic form, both built for fast pursuit through forest canopy.
raptor
Black Scoter
The Black Scoter is the only scoter whose breeding male shows an entirely black plumage with no white markings at all, set off by a bright orange-yellow knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Black Phoebe
A dark, tail-wagging flycatcher almost always found perched near water, easily told by its sooty black body and clean white belly.
songbird
Black Kite
The Black Kite is a widespread Old World raptor with dull dark brown plumage, a slightly forked tail, and finely barred flight feathers, notable for its adaptability to human-altered landscapes including cities and rubbish sites.
raptor
Black Heron
An African heron cloaked entirely in slate-black plumage, famous for spreading its wings into a feeding "umbrella" over the water to lure fish into shade.
wading bird
Black Francolin
A boldly patterned gamebird with males showing black plumage dotted with white spots and a chestnut neck collar, while females are cryptically mottled brown.
gamebird
Black Falcon
The Black Falcon is an uncommon, uniformly dark falcon of arid inland Australia, one of the least frequently encountered Australian raptors due to its remote range and low density.
raptor
Pacific Black Duck
The Pacific Black Duck is a mottled dark brown dabbling duck with a distinctive pale face crossed by dark eye stripes, common on wetlands across Australia and the Pacific.
waterfowl