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.
Spotless Starling
A glossy black starling of Iberia and northwest Africa closely resembling the Common Starling but lacking the pale spangling in breeding plumage.
songbird
Purple Martin
The largest North American swallow, with males showing an all-over glossy blue-black sheen and females a duller gray-brown, pale-bellied pattern.
songbird
Palm Warbler
A ground-foraging wood-warbler with a rufous cap in breeding plumage and constant tail-bobbing, breeding in northern bogs and wintering in the southeastern US.
songbird
Philadelphia Vireo
The Philadelphia Vireo is a small, plain-plumaged vireo of northern woodlands, often confused with the Warbling Vireo and Tennessee Warbler due to its subtle coloring.
songbird
Ivory Gull
A pure white, high Arctic gull closely tied to pack ice, whose all-white adult plumage and short black legs make it unmistakable among northern seabirds.
seabird
Hazel Grouse
A small, secretive forest grouse of northern Eurasia, best known for its finely patterned gray-brown plumage and a bold black-and-white throat patch in males.
gamebird
Harris's Hawk
A dark chestnut-brown desert hawk notable for its social, cooperative hunting behavior, with a bold black-and-white tail pattern and chestnut shoulder patches.
raptor
Mountain Chickadee
The Mountain Chickadee is a western conifer-forest specialist whose black cap is broken by a bold white eyebrow stripe not seen in other common chickadees.
songbird
European Turtle Dove
A small, warmly colored migratory dove with a tortoiseshell-patterned wing and a neat black-and-white striped neck patch found in no other common European dove.
dove pigeon
Dusky Turtle Dove
A darkly plumaged highland dove of East Africa's mountains, notably duskier overall than lowland turtle doves, with a black patch on the back of the neck.
dove pigeon
Black Scoter
The Black Scoter is the only scoter whose breeding male shows an entirely black plumage with no white markings at all, set off by a bright orange-yellow knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Brimstone Canary
A robust, brightly colored African canary showing rich sulfur-yellow underparts and olive-green upperparts, with a notably heavy bill.
songbird
Black-headed Gull
A small, gregarious Old World gull whose chocolate-brown (not black) hood and white leading-edge wing wedge make it easy to pick out from mixed flocks.
seabird
Berylline Hummingbird
A coppery-green montane hummingbird whose folded wings show a flash of rufous not typically visible in similar species until it takes flight.
hummingbird
Barbary Falcon
A desert-adapted relative of the Peregrine Falcon, paler and more rufous-toned, occupying arid cliffs and open desert from North Africa across the Middle East.
raptor
Arizona Woodpecker
A woodpecker of southwestern oak canyons notable for its plain brown back, unlike the black-and-white barred pattern of most related species.
woodpecker
Laughing Owl
An extinct New Zealand owl known for its odd, laughter-like call, with soft brown mottled plumage and a paler facial area; now known only from museum specimens.
owl
Orange-winged Amazon
The Orange-winged Amazon is a mid-sized, widespread South American parrot named for the bright orange patch revealed in its flight feathers.
parrot
Hooded Vulture
A small, slender African vulture with plain dark brown plumage and a distinctive whitish downy hood of feathers on the head and neck.
raptor
Common Green Magpie
A vividly green forest corvid with a bold black mask and chestnut wing patch, whose color can fade toward blue in old feathers.
corvid
Black-headed Mountain Finch
A high-altitude finch of the Himalayas and Central Asian ranges, known for its blackish head and body offset by rosy-pink wing feathers.
songbird
African Grey Parrot
A medium-sized grey parrot with pale-edged scalloped body feathers and a bright red tail, native to equatorial Africa.
parrot
Wilson's Warbler
A small, bright yellow warbler with an active, flitting manner, males topped with a neat, glossy black cap and no wing bars or streaking anywhere.
songbird
Thick-billed Siskin
A high-Andean finch notable for its unusually stout, heavy bill relative to other siskins, paired with a black head and yellow-olive body.
songbird