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.
Philippine Eagle
The Philippine Eagle is a huge, critically endangered forest eagle with brown upperparts, creamy-white underparts, and a shaggy crest of long brown-and-cream feathers that it raises when alert.
raptor
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a thin, deeply curved bill for extracting apple snails, and feathers ranging from slaty gray in males to warm streaked brown in females and young birds.
raptor
Saddle-billed Stork
One of Africa's tallest and most colorful storks, with a glossy black-and-white body and a spectacular red, black, and yellow bill, though the feathers themselves are simply patterned in black and white.
wading bird
Rufous Owl
The Rufous Owl is a large, richly colored hawk-owl of northern Australia and New Guinea, its warm rufous-brown feathers finely barred throughout and its head rounded without ear tufts.
owl
Rough-legged Hawk
The Rough-legged Hawk is an Arctic-breeding buteo with a pale tail base and dark terminal band, a dark belly patch, and dark carpal patches on the underwing, plus legs feathered fully to the toes for insulation.
raptor
Reeves's Pheasant
A pheasant of central China renowned for having the longest tail feathers of any bird in its family, combined with golden, black-scaled body plumage and a bold black-and-white head pattern.
gamebird
European Robin
An iconic garden songbird with a vivid orange-red face and breast set against olive-brown upperparts, one of the most recognizable feather patterns in European gardens.
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
Grey Partridge
A dumpy, farmland gamebird with finely vermiculated grey body feathers, a bright orange face, and a distinctive chestnut horseshoe marking on the underparts.
gamebird
Greater Sage-Grouse
North America's largest grouse, famous for the male's elaborate lek display featuring spiky tail feathers fanned upward and inflated yellow air sacs on a white breast.
gamebird
California Quail
A familiar western quail known for the male's forward-drooping black head plume and scaled gray-brown body feathers, common in chaparral and suburban gardens alike.
gamebird
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
Greater White-fronted Goose
A brown, scale-patterned goose named for the band of white feathers at the base of its bill, with variable black barring across the belly that gives it the nickname "specklebelly."
waterfowl
Cinereous Vulture
One of the heaviest flying raptors, with uniformly dark brown plumage, a dense dark ruff, and broad flight feathers adapted for soaring across open Eurasian terrain.
raptor
Crimson Sunbird
A vividly colored South and Southeast Asian sunbird whose males combine brilliant crimson plumage with a metallic green crown and elongated central tail feathers.
songbird
Palm-nut Vulture
An unusual, mostly white African vulture closely tied to oil palm groves and coastal wetlands, with black flight feathers and a partly black tail breaking up its pale plumage.
raptor
Southern Boobook
Australia's most familiar and widespread owl, named for its distinctive 'boo-book' call, with dark brown feathers boldly spotted white above and streaked buff below.
owl
Ruddy Duck
The Ruddy Duck is a small, compact stiff-tailed duck best known for its stiff, often upright tail feathers and, in breeding males, a vivid rufous body set off by a black cap and white cheek.
waterfowl
Rock Ptarmigan
A circumpolar tundra grouse that turns from mottled gray-brown in summer to pure white in winter, always retaining black tail feathers as a year-round field mark.
gamebird
Tree Swallow
A cavity-nesting swallow whose upperpart feathers shine in iridescent blue-green while the underparts remain pure white, giving a sharply two-toned appearance.
songbird
Spotted Towhee
The western counterpart to the Eastern Towhee, distinguished by bold white spots and streaks across the back and wing feathers layered over the same black-rufous-white color scheme.
songbird
Northern Cardinal
The Northern Cardinal is a stocky, crested songbird whose males shed brilliant all-red feathers while females drop more subdued brown feathers tinged with red on the wings, tail and crest.
songbird
Northern Bald Ibis
A critically endangered 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
Dunnock
An unassuming, sparrow-like songbird with soft grey head and breast feathers and a streaked brown back, easily overlooked but distinct once compared with true sparrows.
songbird