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.

Oriental Magpie-Robin
A familiar garden songbird of South and Southeast Asia, glossy black and white with a long tail it habitually holds cocked upward, known for its rich, musical song.
songbird
Grey-headed Dove
A quiet forest-floor dove of Central America, identified by its pale grey head, white throat, and a faint metallic sheen across the back of its neck.
dove pigeon
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
Eurasian Bullfinch
A stocky, short-billed finch with a black cap, grey back, and a rosy-pink breast in males, easily told by its bright white rump patch in flight.
songbird
Black Swan
An Australian swan with distinctively curled, sooty black-gray body feathers and a striking red bill, its white flight feathers hidden until the wings are spread.
waterfowl
Blackpoll Warbler
A small wood-warbler famous for its extremely long migratory flights, showing a black cap and white cheeks in breeding males and a plainer streaked plumage in fall.
songbird
Ceylon Spurfowl
A shy, dark forest gamebird endemic to Sri Lanka, recognized by rich chestnut-brown plumage dotted with white spots and, in males, bare red facial skin.
gamebird
Brant
The Brant is a small, dark sea goose marked by a black head, neck, and breast broken by a fine white necklace, closely tied to coastal estuaries and tidal flats.
waterfowl
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
Mallard
The world's most familiar duck, identifiable from almost any single wing feather by its glossy blue speculum bordered in white, shared by both sexes.
waterfowl
Yellow-throated Warbler
A gray-backed wood-warbler with a bright yellow throat and bold black-and-white facial pattern, often seen creeping along branches in pine and cypress woodland.
songbird
Silver Pheasant
A striking forest pheasant of Southeast Asia, with males showing crisp white upperparts finely marked with black lines contrasting against glossy blue-black underparts.
gamebird
Vulturine Guineafowl
The largest and most vividly plumed guineafowl, with a bare vulture-like blue head, long striped neck hackles, and a cobalt-blue breast spangled with white spots.
gamebird
Virginia's Warbler
A gray-bodied warbler of dry interior western scrublands, marked by a bright yellow rump and breast patch, a white eye-ring, and a concealed chestnut crown patch.
songbird
Townsend's Solitaire
A slender, uniformly gray thrush relative of western mountains, identified by its bold white eye-ring, long tail, and buffy wing patch visible in flight.
songbird
Tennessee Warbler
A plainly patterned warbler with a gray head, white eyebrow stripe, and whitish underparts, notable for its unmarked, wing-bar-free appearance and boreal breeding range.
songbird
Swinhoe's Pheasant
A pheasant endemic to Taiwan's mountain forests, showing glossy dark blue-black plumage broken by a striking white band across the back and a bright red face.
gamebird
Painted Redstart
A boldly patterned black warbler with a bright red breast patch and large white patches on the wings and outer tail, constantly fanning its tail while foraging.
songbird
Oriental Magpie
An East Asian magpie closely related to the Eurasian Magpie, recognized by its glossy black-and-white pattern and a somewhat shorter tail than its western relatives.
corvid
Northern Saw-whet Owl
One of the smallest owls in North America, with soft reddish-brown, white-streaked plumage, no ear tufts, and a distinctive whitish facial disc bordered by a dark rim.
owl
Marsh Wren
A small, vocal wren of cattail marshes, identified by its bold black-and-white streaked back and habit of singing loudly from within dense reed cover.
songbird
Lucy's Warbler
One of the smallest and palest North American warblers, essentially plain gray and white apart from a bright rufous rump patch and a concealed rufous crown spot.
songbird
Long-billed Hermit
A large hermit hummingbird of Central American rainforest understory, identified by its long decurved bill, buffy underparts, and elongated white-tipped central tail feathers.
hummingbird
Lazuli Bunting
A small western North American bunting, the male Lazuli Bunting pairs a turquoise-blue head and back with a warm orange breast band and clean white belly.
songbird