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.
Red Junglefowl
The wild ancestor of the domestic chicken, with males displaying glossy orange-gold neck hackles and long, curved, iridescent black tail feathers.
gamebird
Downy Woodpecker
The smallest North American woodpecker, its black-and-white checkered feathers and short bill make it a common and easily identified backyard bird.
woodpecker
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
Speckled Chachalaca
A grayish-brown, chicken-like bird of South American forest edges, marked with fine pale speckling on the breast and a long tail broadly tipped in cinnamon. It is best known for its loud, raucous dawn calls that give the chachalaca its name.
gamebird
Emu
Australia's largest bird, the Emu has loose, hair-like feathers that grow in pairs from a single shaft, giving its plumage a shaggy, fur-like texture unlike any flying bird.
other
Common Kingfisher
A small, jewel-like bird whose brilliant structurally iridescent blue back feathers and warm orange underparts make it one of the most vividly colored birds along any river.
other
Brown Kiwi
A flightless, nocturnal New Zealand bird with shaggy, hair-like feathers and a long probing bill used to find invertebrates in leaf litter.
other
Grey Junglefowl
An Indian forest gamebird whose males have neck hackle feathers tipped with an unusual glassy, wax-like yellow spangle unlike any other bird.
gamebird
Common Swift
The Common Swift is an almost entirely aerial bird with long, scythe-like flight feathers and uniformly sooty-brown plumage, built for a life spent on the wing far more than any songbird.
other
Southern Cassowary
A large, flightless rainforest bird, the Southern Cassowary has coarse, hair-like black plumage and a tall bony head casque, with its vivid blue-and-red coloring confined to bare skin rather than feathers.
other
Wattled Jacana
A chestnut-and-black wetland bird best known for its extraordinarily long toes, which let it walk across lily pads and floating vegetation. A bright yellow facial shield and greenish-yellow flight feathers add to its distinctive look.
shorebird
King Bird-of-paradise
The King Bird-of-paradise is the smallest member of its family, with a brilliant crimson-and-white plumage and unusual wire-like tail feathers that end in coiled emerald-green discs. It forages and displays in the lower and middle levels of New Guinea lowland forest.
songbird