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.
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
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
Long-eared Owl
A slender, well-camouflaged owl best known for its long, closely set ear tufts and richly streaked orange-brown plumage, roosting communally in dense conifer stands.
owl
Greater Rhea
A large flightless ratite of South American grasslands, with soft, loose grayish-brown plumage and a long neck, related more to ostriches and emus than to typical flying birds.
other
Purple Sunbird
A common South Asian sunbird whose breeding males appear almost entirely glossy purple-black, while females and non-breeding males show plainer olive-brown and yellowish tones.
songbird
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
Purple Finch
The Purple Finch is a chunky finch whose males show a raspberry-red wash extending over the back and rump, deeper than the localized red of the House Finch, while females show bold brown facial striping.
songbird
Pacific Wren
A tiny, dark rufous-brown wren of western old-growth forest understory, nearly identical to the Winter Wren but distinguished mainly by range and its distinctly different song.
songbird
Mottled Owl
A medium-sized, ear-tuftless wood owl of Neotropical forest, its feathers finely mottled in dark and pale brown, with whitish eyebrows and buffy, streaked underparts.
owl
Buffy Fish Owl
A warm buffy-brown fish-hunting owl of Southeast Asian lowland waterways, streaked with darker brown and equipped with bristly, sparsely feathered feet for gripping slippery prey.
owl
Eastern Phoebe
A plain-plumaged flycatcher recognized more by its tail-wagging habit than bright colors, with grayish-brown feathers above and a faint yellow wash on white underparts.
songbird
Common Linnet
An open-country finch with a warm brown body overall, breeding males adding a crimson forehead and breast patch atop a grey head and chestnut back, with pale wing and tail panels visible in flight.
songbird
Hawaiian Crow
A critically rare Hawaiian corvid with softer, browner plumage than mainland crows, subject to intensive conservation efforts after disappearing from the wild.
corvid
Grey Peacock-Pheasant
A grey-brown forest pheasant whose wing and tail feathers are dotted with shimmering blue-green eye-spots, used in display rather than the long trailing tails of many pheasant relatives.
gamebird
Great Skua
A powerfully built, gull-sized seabird cloaked in dark brown plumage flecked with rufous and buff, best known for its bold white wing-flash and aggressive, piratical habits.
seabird
Gray Peacock-pheasant
A forest-floor pheasant of South and Southeast Asia whose gray-brown feathers are dotted with brilliant blue-green and purple eyespots, most striking across the spread tail.
gamebird
Sanderling
The palest of the common small sandpipers, famous for chasing retreating waves on open sandy beaches in tight, fast-moving flocks.
shorebird
Dunlin
A common small sandpiper whose breeding plumage features a bold black belly patch found on no other similarly sized shorebird.
shorebird
Fischer's Lovebird
A small lovebird with a bright orange-red face, an olive-yellow collar around the nape, and a green body, native to East Africa.
parrot
Yellow-collared Lovebird
A small lovebird with a dark, mask-like head, a bright yellow collar and breast, and a green body, native to north-central Tanzania.
parrot
Allen's Hummingbird
A small West Coast hummingbird with a fiery orange-red throat patch, warm rufous flanks and tail, and a back that can be green or rufous depending on the population.
hummingbird
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
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
Yellow-fronted Canary
A small African finch with a bright yellow face and underparts set off by a bold black malar stripe and streaked olive-green back.
songbird