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.
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
An Australian endemic spoonbill with pale yellow bill and legs, generally less gregarious than the Royal Spoonbill and often found alone or in small groups at inland wetlands.
wading bird
Grey Crowned Crane
An African crane instantly recognized by its stiff, golden bristle crown, red throat wattle, and boldly patterned wings combining white, chestnut, and black.
wading bird
Victoria Crowned Pigeon
The Victoria Crowned Pigeon is one of the largest pigeons alive, topped with an elaborate lace-like fan of blue feathers tipped in white.
dove pigeon
Limpkin
A brown, white-spotted wading bird related to both rails and cranes, known for its loud, wailing calls and long, slightly downcurved bill.
wading bird
Yellow-breasted Bunting
The Yellow-breasted Bunting is a strikingly colored Eurasian songbird, once abundant but now rare due to unsustainable historical trapping pressure along its migratory routes.
songbird
Brown Falcon
The Brown Falcon is a common and highly variable Australian falcon with broader, more buzzard-like proportions than most falcons, ranging in tone from dark chocolate-brown to pale cream morphs.
raptor
Secretarybird
A tall, long-legged raptor that hunts on foot across the African savanna, with pale gray body feathers, black flight and thigh feathers, and long black crest plumes at the back of the head.
raptor
Western Gull
A heavily built, dark-backed gull of the Pacific coast, the Western Gull shows dark slate-gray mantle feathers and a notably powerful, thick bill, rarely wandering far from saltwater.
seabird
Tawny Owl
A stocky woodland owl whose bark-patterned, silent-edged feathers make it one of the most cryptically camouflaged birds in the forest.
owl
Black-faced Spoonbill
The smallest and one of the rarest spoonbill species, an all-white East Asian wading bird with a black bare face and a slender black spoon-shaped bill.
wading bird
Plain Pigeon
A large, plainly colored Caribbean pigeon that reveals a white wing patch in flight, a species of conservation concern on several islands.
dove pigeon
Brolga
Australia's iconic crane, grey overall with a bare red band of skin around the head and a distinctive fold of skin (dewlap) under the chin, well known for its elaborate dancing displays.
wading bird
Orange-breasted Falcon
The Orange-breasted Falcon is a powerful, rare Neotropical falcon resembling a large Bat Falcon, with a black hood, a broad orange-buff breast band, and a boldly white-barred black belly.
raptor
Glaucous Gull
A massive, pale Arctic gull, the Glaucous Gull is unusual among large gulls for lacking black wingtips entirely, showing instead uniformly pale gray and white feathers well suited to its icy northern range.
seabird
Southern Lapwing
A bold, noisy plover of South American open country, the Southern Lapwing shows iridescent bronze-green wing feathers, a black breast patch, and a distinctive thin head crest.
shorebird
Hooded Crane
A small, dark East Asian crane with a white head and upper neck resembling a hood, contrasting sharply with its otherwise slate-grey to blackish body.
wading bird
Little Owl
A small, flat-headed owl whose boldly white-spotted brown feathers and habit of perching in daylight set it apart from Europe's other owls.
owl
African Fish Eagle
A strikingly tricolor eagle of African waters, with a crisp white head, chest, and tail set sharply against rich chestnut body plumage and black flight feathers.
raptor
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
An extremely large, historically iconic woodpecker of southeastern US bottomland forest, now exceedingly rare, recognized by its bold white wing patches and ivory-colored bill.
woodpecker
Amur Falcon
The Amur Falcon is a small migratory falcon breeding in eastern Asia and famed for an enormous transoceanic migration to southern Africa, closely resembling the related Red-footed Falcon.
raptor
Nankeen Kestrel
The Nankeen Kestrel is Australia's common small hovering falcon, named for the pale rufous-tan 'nankeen' color of its back, with a pale grey head and lightly spotted whitish underparts.
raptor
Common Cuckoo
A slim, hawk-mimicking bird whose barred underparts and pointed wings closely resemble a small sparrowhawk, an example of remarkable plumage convergence in nature.
other
Ring-necked Pheasant
A large, long-tailed gamebird whose males carry some of the most vividly iridescent body feathers and dramatically elongated tail feathers of any bird found in open countryside.
gamebird
Red Kite
A rufous, forked-tailed raptor of Europe whose long, angular wings and deeply forked tail feathers are among the most recognizable silhouettes in the sky.
raptor
Bornean Peacock-pheasant
A little-known peacock-pheasant endemic to Borneo's lowland rainforest, patterned with rows of glossy blue-green eyespots across a rich chestnut-brown plumage.
gamebird
Australian Hobby
The Australian Hobby is a small, fast, dark-headed falcon resembling a miniature Peregrine, with slate-grey upperparts and rufous-orange underparts, common across open woodland and towns.
raptor
Andean Condor
The largest raptor by wingspan in the world, with mostly black plumage set off by a white neck ruff and bold white upperwing patches in males.
raptor
Red-crowned Crane
One of the rarest cranes in the world, a large white East Asian crane with a black neck, a bare red crown, and elongated black secondary feathers that form a false 'tail' over its true white tail.
wading bird
Common Crane
A widespread Eurasian crane with slate-grey plumage, a black-and-white striped head and neck, and drooping tertial plumes that form a bustle over the tail.
wading bird
American Herring Gull
The North American counterpart to the Eurasian Herring Gull, the American Herring Gull shows very similar pale gray-and-white plumage with black wingtip spots, but with subtly darker gray tones and pinkish legs.
seabird
Plumbeous Forest Falcon
A small forest-falcon restricted to the humid Chocó region of Colombia and Ecuador, resembling its more widespread relatives but confined to a much smaller range.
raptor
Great Black-backed Gull
The world's largest gull, the Great Black-backed Gull shows strikingly dark slate-black mantle feathers contrasting with a pure white head and body, and is a powerful predator as well as scavenger along North Atlantic coasts.
seabird
Northern Bald Ibis
An ibis with glossy black, iridescent plumage, a bare red face, and a shaggy ruff of elongated feathers trailing from the back of its head.
wading bird
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
Sooty Falcon
The Sooty Falcon is a slim, uniformly dark grey falcon of desert coastlines and offshore islands of the Middle East and northeastern Africa, sharing Eleonora's Falcon's unusual late-breeding strategy tied to songbird migration.
raptor
Straw-necked Ibis
A gregarious Australian ibis with an iridescent black back and odd straw-textured neck plumes, usually seen foraging in large nomadic flocks across open grassland.
wading bird
Saker Falcon
The Saker Falcon is a large, powerfully built falcon of the Eurasian steppes, prized historically in falconry, with pale sandy-brown plumage and long tapered wings suited to open-country pursuit.
raptor
California Condor
One of the largest flying birds in the world, with enormous black flight feathers and bold white underwing patches.
raptor
Eastern Imperial Eagle
A large steppe eagle recognized by small white patches on the shoulders (scapulars) contrasting with otherwise dark brown plumage and a pale, creamy nape.
raptor
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
Jack Snipe
The smallest snipe species, the Jack Snipe shows striking golden-buff back stripes with an iridescent purple-green sheen, set off by dark brown plumage, and is famous for its secretive, near-silent behavior.
shorebird
African Spoonbill
An all-white African wading bird with a red face and legs, identified by its plain white plumage and grey spoon-shaped bill without a crest.
wading bird
Dickinson's Kestrel
Dickinson's Kestrel is a small, short-tailed African kestrel with grey plumage overall and a finely scaled pale back, often associated with palm trees in savanna and woodland of southeastern Africa.
raptor
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
Crested Argus
A secretive forest pheasant renowned for the male's extraordinarily long tail feathers, among the longest of any bird, patterned with rows of pale eyespots. A tall, erectile crest and bare blue facial skin round out its distinctive appearance.
gamebird
Roseate Spoonbill
The only pink spoonbill in the world, easily identified by its rosy-pink body plumage, white neck, and spoon-shaped grey bill.
wading bird
White-tailed Eagle
A massive coastal eagle whose short, white, wedge-shaped tail feathers and pale straw head contrast strongly with dark brown body plumage in adults.
raptor
Wedge-tailed Eagle
Australia's largest bird of prey, distinguished from all other eagles by its remarkably long, diamond-shaped tail feathers, the longest relative to body size of any eagle.
raptor