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-winged Blackbird
A common marsh-dwelling blackbird whose males display bold red-and-yellow shoulder patches on glossy black plumage, while females are entirely different, streaked brown like a large sparrow.
songbird
Great-tailed Grackle
The Great-tailed Grackle is a large, adaptable blackbird known for the male's exceptionally long, keeled tail and glossy iridescent plumage, now common across much of the southern and central United States and beyond.
songbird
House Finch
The House Finch is a common feeder finch whose male feathers show a diet-dependent red-to-orange wash on the head and breast over a brown-streaked body, while females are plain streaked brown.
songbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
The Boat-tailed Grackle is a large coastal grackle with a long, distinctively keeled tail, males glossy black with iridescence and females a much smaller warm brown, common along Atlantic and Gulf Coast marshes.
songbird
Great Kiskadee
A large, boldly patterned flycatcher named for its loud, ringing call, with a black-and-white striped head, sulfur-yellow underparts, and rufous edging on the wings and tail. It is a common and conspicuous bird from Texas to Argentina.
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
Arctic Tern
A slender, long-distance migrant famous for traveling between Arctic breeding grounds and Antarctic waters each year, distinguished from the similar Common Tern by an all-red bill and more uniformly translucent primaries.
seabird
Tropical Kingbird
A common and widespread tyrant flycatcher recognized by its pale gray head and throat fading into lemon-yellow underparts, paired with a notched, dark tail. It favors open habitats with scattered perches from which it sallies for insects.
songbird
Ring-billed Gull
A common, adaptable medium-sized gull of North America named for the black band around its bill, the Ring-billed Gull shows pale gray back feathers and yellow legs, thriving in habitats from lakeshores to parking lots.
seabird
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
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
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
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
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
Plush-crested Jay
A South American jay with a velvety black face, glowing yellow eyes, and a soft blue patch on the nape, its tail broadly tipped in white.
corvid
Yellow-headed Caracara
A pale-headed, adaptable caracara commonly seen around cattle and open farmland across Central and South America, easily told by its creamy-yellow head and dark eye-stripe.
raptor
White-winged Scoter
The White-winged Scoter is the largest of the scoters, a heavy black sea duck distinguished by a bright white wing patch and a small comma-shaped white mark around the eye.
waterfowl