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.
Lesser Flamingo
The smallest flamingo species, often showing the most vividly saturated pink plumage of any flamingo.
wading bird
Little Raven
The smallest of Australia's raven species, common across farmland and open woodland in the continent's southeast.
corvid
Northern Mockingbird
A slim gray songbird famous for its vocal mimicry, identifiable by the bold white patches on its wings and the white outer edges of its long tail.
songbird
White-breasted Nuthatch
The White-breasted Nuthatch is a tree-climbing songbird whose clean blue-gray back and pure white face and breast feathers are easy to separate from most other backyard species.
songbird
Bank Swallow
A small, plain brown-and-white swallow told from other species by a clean brown breast band across otherwise white underparts.
songbird
Little Crow
The smallest of Australia's crow species, adapted to arid interior habitats and often seen in nomadic flocks.
corvid
Mallard
The world's most familiar duck, identifiable from almost any single wing feather by its glossy blue speculum bordered in white, shared by both sexes.
waterfowl
Indigo Bunting
A small eastern songbird whose breeding males appear an intense, uniform iridescent blue with no other markings, while females are entirely plain brown, making feathers of the two sexes look like different species.
songbird
Goldcrest
Europe's smallest bird, identifiable even from a single tiny feather by its vivid black-bordered crown stripe — orange in males, yellow in females — set against olive-green plumage.
songbird
Bohemian Waxwing
A sleek, crested songbird best known for the bright red, wax-like tips on its wing feathers, which give the species its name.
songbird
Peaceful Dove
A small, gentle Australian dove with fine dark barring across the neck and breast and a soft, pale blue ring around the eye.
dove pigeon
Northern Shrike
A pale, predatory songbird of the far north that winters across open habitats farther south, distinguished from the smaller Loggerhead Shrike by its larger bill and faintly barred underparts.
songbird
Lesser Kestrel
A colonial, steppe-loving falcon closely resembling Common Kestrel but smaller and more social, with males showing an unspotted chestnut back and pale claws that separate the species from its more familiar relative.
raptor
Hahn's Macaw
The smallest macaw species, mostly green with a small blue forehead patch and a red patch at the bend of the wing.
parrot
Yellow Wagtail
The Yellow Wagtail is a slender summer-visiting songbird whose plumage is yellow from throat to undertail, set against an olive-green back, distinguishing its feathers from the more grey-toned wagtails.
songbird
Gray-cheeked Thrush
A subdued, cold-toned thrush of the far north, distinguished from similar species mainly by its plain grayish face and weak or absent eye-ring.
songbird
Brown Thrasher
A large, rich rufous-brown songbird with heavily streaked underparts and a long tail, often heard singing elaborate phrases from a high perch.
songbird
Firecrest
The Firecrest is one of Europe's smallest songbirds, a mite of a bird whose soft, downy contour feathers are topped with a blazing orange-and-black crown stripe unlike any similarly sized species.
songbird
Common Starling
A glossy, iridescent songbird whose feathers shift from heavily spangled with pale spots in fresh winter plumage to sleek and nearly spot-free by the breeding season.
songbird
Bachman's Sparrow
Bachman's Sparrow is a secretive southeastern songbird best known for its long, sweet, whistled song delivered from a low perch in open pine woods.
songbird
Wilson's Bird-of-paradise
Wilson's Bird-of-paradise is a small, intensely colorful species with a red back, yellow nape, an iridescent green breast shield, and a bare, patterned blue crown. It is restricted to a couple of small Indonesian islands where males display and clear small ground courts.
songbird
European Starling
An abundant introduced songbird whose feathers change appearance through wear alone, shifting from spotted in fresh winter plumage to glossy and unspotted by breeding season.
songbird
Glaucous-winged Gull
A common gull of the North Pacific coast, the Glaucous-winged Gull shows pale gray wingtip feathers with little or no black, differing subtly from most other large gulls, and frequently hybridizes with related species.
seabird
Olive Warbler
The Olive Warbler is a small, treetop songbird of southwestern highland pines, notable for the male's burnt-orange head and bold black mask.
songbird