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.
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
Dodo
A large, flightless pigeon relative once native to Mauritius, known for its stout grey-brown body, oversized hooked bill, and small, curled tuft of tail feathers; it has been extinct since the late 1600s.
dove pigeon
Baltimore Oriole
A vividly colored eastern songbird whose adult males show a striking contrast of flame-orange and black feathers, best known for weaving an elaborate hanging nest.
songbird
Crested Oropendola
A large, glossy black oropendola with a bright yellow tail, a pale ivory bill, and a small feathered crest, widespread across lowland forests of South America.
songbird
Eastern Bluebird
A small, vividly colored thrush whose blue feathers are produced by feather structure rather than pigment, giving them a shifting brightness depending on the angle of light.
songbird
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
Southern Red Bishop
A small African weaver whose breeding males turn brilliant scarlet and black, one of the most vividly colored birds of Africa's wetland grasses.
songbird
Paradise Tanager
One of the most vividly colored songbirds in the world, the Paradise Tanager combines a turquoise-green head, black back, red rump, and purplish-blue throat in a single small canopy bird.
songbird
Short-toed Treecreeper
The Short-toed Treecreeper is a small, bark-colored woodland bird that spirals up tree trunks probing for insects, its mottled brown plumage providing near-perfect camouflage against bark.
songbird
Eurasian Blue Tit
A small, brightly colored garden tit with a blue crown and wings, yellow underparts, and white cheeks bordered by a thin black eye-line, among the most colorful common feathers in European gardens.
songbird
Common Whitethroat
A small, active warbler with a bright white throat contrasting a grey head, and warm chestnut fringes on the wing feathers that add color to an otherwise modest bird.
songbird
Carolina Wren
A chunky, warm rufous wren of southeastern thickets whose barred tail feathers and loud, ringing song make it one of the most conspicuous small birds around brushy yards.
songbird
Eurasian Pygmy-Owl
Europe's smallest owl, a boreal forest specialist that hunts small birds and rodents largely by day. Its feathers are gray-brown to rufous with crisp white spotting and a narrowly barred tail.
owl
Cedar Waxwing
A sleek, crested bird best known for the small, waxy red tips on its secondary wing feathers, paired with a soft brown-to-gray body and a bright yellow band across the tail tip.
songbird
Ovenbird
A ground-dwelling warbler that looks more like a small thrush, with heavily streaked underparts and a bold orange crown stripe bordered in black.
songbird
Green Bee-eater
A small, brilliantly green bee-eater found from Africa to South Asia, with a thin black eye stripe and a fine pin-like extension to its central tail feathers.
other
Sage Thrasher
The smallest and most compact North American thrasher, a streaky gray-brown bird of sagebrush country with a shorter, straighter bill than its relatives.
songbird
Le Conte's Sparrow
A small, brightly colored grassland sparrow with an orange face and finely streaked, buffy underparts.
songbird
Ruby-topaz Hummingbird
A small, richly colored hummingbird whose male combines a ruby-red crown with a glowing golden-orange throat over a warm chestnut body.
hummingbird
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
Sun Conure
A vividly colored conure of northeastern South America, its golden-yellow and orange plumage set off by green-tipped wings and blue flight feathers.
parrot
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
Ruby-cheeked Sunbird
A tiny Southeast Asian sunbird with bronze-green upperparts, an orange-yellow belly, and a small but bright ruby-colored cheek patch.
songbird
Dark-eyed Junco
A familiar winter feeder bird, the Dark-eyed Junco flashes bright white outer tail feathers against a slate-gray or brown body when it flies.
songbird