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.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a striking black-and-white bird with bold white wing patches, a crimson undertail, and stiff, pointed tail feathers adapted for bracing against tree trunks while excavating and drumming.
woodpecker
Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is Europe's smallest woodpecker, its black-and-white barred back and small size distinguishing its feathers from the much larger, bolder-patched Great Spotted Woodpecker.
woodpecker
Buff-spotted Woodpecker
A small, delicately spotted woodpecker of African rainforest understory, patterned in olive-green with buff spotting rather than the bold barring typical of many woodpeckers.
woodpecker
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
A small, delicately patterned European woodpecker of old oak woodland, easily told from the Great Spotted Woodpecker by its unbroken red cap and streaked, rather than solidly barred, flanks.
woodpecker
Great Spotted Kiwi
The largest of the kiwi species, this flightless New Zealand bird has grayish, hair-like plumage marked with light mottled banding that gives it a more patterned look than its brown relatives. It inhabits rugged mountain forest and subalpine grassland on the South Island.
other
Great Slaty Woodpecker
The largest living woodpecker species, a huge slate-grey bird of South and Southeast Asian forests that typically travels in noisy family parties.
woodpecker
Spotted Sandpiper
A small, constantly bobbing sandpiper whose breeding-season underparts are covered in bold round black spots unlike any other North American shorebird.
shorebird
Spotted Flycatcher
The Spotted Flycatcher is a plain grey-brown songbird best recognized by behavior rather than bold color, its subtly streaked feathers built for a life of short aerial sallies from an open perch.
songbird
Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker
A boreal-forest specialist recognized by its yellow crown patch in males and finely barred black-and-white flanks, closely tied to insect-affected conifers.
woodpecker
Spotted Nutcracker
A chunky brown corvid covered in bold white spots, found in coniferous forests across Eurasia, where it caches nuts and pine seeds for winter.
corvid
Nubian Woodpecker
An East African savanna woodpecker with bold black spotting across cream underparts and a barred greenish back, favoring dry thornbush country.
woodpecker
Spotted Towhee
The western counterpart to the Eastern Towhee, distinguished by bold white spots and streaks across the back and wing feathers layered over the same black-rufous-white color scheme.
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
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.
owl
Spotted Kestrel
The Spotted Kestrel is a resident kestrel of Indonesian islands, closely related to the Common Kestrel, with a boldly spotted rufous back and pale, spotted underparts.
raptor
Spotted Dove
A common Asian dove instantly recognized by the broad black collar on its hindneck, which is finely spotted with white like a string of pearls.
dove pigeon
Bennett's Woodpecker
A southern African woodland woodpecker with heavy black spotting on pale underparts, closely related to other spotted African woodpeckers but favoring drier broadleaf woodland types.
woodpecker
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
Syrian Woodpecker
A close look-alike of the Great Spotted Woodpecker found across southeastern Europe and the Middle East, best separated by an incomplete black neck bar and a paler pink vent.
woodpecker
White Woodpecker
An unusually pale South American woodpecker, mostly white with contrasting black wings and back and a patch of bare yellow facial skin.
woodpecker
Rufous Woodpecker
An unusually uniform rufous-brown woodpecker of South and Southeast Asia, best known for nesting inside the arboreal nests of tree ants.
woodpecker
Robust Woodpecker
A large, striking woodpecker of the Atlantic Forest region of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay, marked by a prominent red crest and bold black-and-white pattern.
woodpecker
Powerful Woodpecker
A large woodpecker of Andean cloud forest, closely related to the Crimson-crested and Magellanic Woodpeckers but with distinctive buffy, barred underparts rather than clean black-and-white.
woodpecker
Olive Woodpecker
A southern and eastern African woodpecker with an olive-green back and grey head, familiar in forest, fynbos margins, and well-wooded gardens.
woodpecker