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-capped Chickadee
The Black-capped Chickadee is a tiny, non-migratory songbird whose soft black-and-white head feathers and plain gray back make it a familiar year-round feeder visitor.
songbird
Boreal Chickadee
The Boreal Chickadee is a hardy northern chickadee with a dull brown cap and rusty flanks, adapted to survive harsh winters deep in the spruce-fir forests of the far north.
songbird
Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a western conifer-forest specialist whose black cap is broken by a bold white eyebrow stripe not seen in other common chickadees.
songbird
Carolina Chickadee
The Carolina Chickadee is the southeastern counterpart to the Black-capped Chickadee, producing nearly identical tiny black-capped, gray-backed feathers.
songbird
Mexican Chickadee
The Mexican Chickadee is a mountain specialist found in high-elevation pine forests, notable for its extensive black bib that extends further down the chest than in most other chickadees.
songbird
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a Pacific coastal chickadee whose warm chestnut-brown back and flank feathers set it apart from every other North American chickadee.
songbird
White-capped Bunting
A South Asian bunting whose breeding males show a bold white crown bordered in black above a chestnut breast band.
songbird
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
One of the smallest South Asian woodpeckers, told from other pygmy woodpeckers mainly by its brownish, rather than blackish, crown.
woodpecker
Golden-naped Finch
A Himalayan finch, also known by the alternate name Gold-naped Finch, whose male shows a black head brightened by a golden nape patch above a rich orange-brown body.
songbird
Pied Avocet
A crisp black-and-white wader with a black cap and nape, known for its elegant upturned bill and sweeping feeding motion.
shorebird
Common Redpoll
A small, hardy northern finch with a red cap and black chin, known for irruptive winter movements into temperate regions at feeders.
songbird
Ruddy Duck
The Ruddy Duck is a small, compact stiff-tailed duck best known for its stiff, often upright tail feathers and, in breeding males, a vivid rufous body set off by a black cap and white cheek.
waterfowl
Noisy Miner
A vocal, highly social Australian honeyeater, the Noisy Miner has gray body plumage, a black cap, and a bright yellow bill and bare eye-patch, and is well known for its bold group defense of territory.
songbird
Black-headed Mountain Finch
A high-altitude finch of the Himalayas and Central Asian ranges, known for its blackish head and body offset by rosy-pink wing feathers.
songbird
African Sacred Ibis
An African wading bird with white plumage, a bare black head and neck, and loose black plumes on the lower back, historically revered in ancient Egypt and now also established as an introduced species in parts of Europe and North America.
wading bird
Little Egret
A dainty white heron of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, best known for its black legs and bright yellow feet.
wading bird
Manx Shearwater
A slim, black-and-white seabird known for its low, banking flight that alternately flashes dark upperparts and white underparts as it 'shears' over waves.
seabird
Oriental Magpie-Robin
A familiar garden songbird of South and Southeast Asia, glossy black and white with a long tail it habitually holds cocked upward, known for its rich, musical song.
songbird
Common Gull
A neat, medium-sized gull of Europe and Asia known as Mew Gull in North American populations, the Common Gull shows pale gray back feathers, black wingtips with white spots, and a gentle, rounded head shape.
seabird
Franklin's Gull
A small, elegant gull of interior prairie wetlands, known for its bold white eye crescents, black hood, and one of the longest migrations of any gull, wintering as far south as the coasts of South America.
seabird
Abdim's Stork
The smallest of the true storks, a compact African species with glossy black-and-white plumage, often associated locally with the arrival of seasonal rains and known for traveling in large flocks.
wading bird
Rose-ringed Parakeet
A slender, bright green parakeet with a long pointed tail, best known for the males' narrow black-and-rose neck ring, and now familiar as a naturalized bird in cities well beyond its native range.
parrot
Rhinoceros Hornbill
The Rhinoceros Hornbill is a large Southeast Asian rainforest bird best known for its upturned, horn-shaped casque, set against black-and-white plumage similar to other large Asian hornbills. It is an important seed disperser in the forests it inhabits.
other