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.
Wood Duck
One of the most ornately feathered ducks in the world, with males showing an iridescent crested head and boldly patterned body, and females recognizable by a distinctive white teardrop eye patch.
waterfowl
Wonga Pigeon
The Wonga Pigeon is a plump, ground-dwelling Australian pigeon known for the bold black chevron markings across its white lower breast and belly.
dove pigeon
Wompoo Fruit Dove
The Wompoo Fruit Dove is one of the largest and most colorful fruit doves, showing bold blocks of grey, purple, green, and yellow across its plumage.
dove pigeon
Winter Wren
A tiny, rounded, rufous-brown wren of dense eastern forest understory, told from its close relatives mainly by voice and range, given its very similar plumage.
songbird
Wilson's Storm-Petrel
A tiny, sooty seabird with a bright white rump patch, often seen fluttering and pattering its feet on the sea surface far from land.
seabird
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
Wilson's Snipe
A secretive, superbly camouflaged marsh bird whose intricately patterned brown-and-buff feathers provide near-perfect concealment among wetland vegetation, with narrow outer tail feathers used to produce an eerie winnowing sound in flight.
shorebird
Willow Warbler
A tiny, long-distance migrant warbler nearly identical to the Chiffchaff, best separated at the feather level by slightly yellower tones and pale pinkish (rather than dark) legs.
songbird
Wilson's Plover
A stocky coastal plover best known for its thick, heavy black bill, distinctly larger than that of similarly patterned ringed plovers.
shorebird
Willow Tit
A plain woodland tit closely resembling the Marsh Tit, distinguished by a duller matte-black cap, a larger bib, and a pale panel across the folded wing formed by pale-edged secondary feathers.
songbird
Wilson's Phalarope
A slim, needle-billed shorebird of prairie wetlands, Wilson's Phalarope shows a striking chestnut neck stripe in breeding plumage and plain gray-and-white feathers otherwise, unusual among birds for its reversed sexual dichromatism.
shorebird
Willow Ptarmigan
The largest of the ptarmigan species, showing warm reddish-brown summer plumage in males, a pure white winter coat, and a black tail retained throughout the year.
gamebird
Wilson's Bird-of-paradise
Wilson's Bird-of-paradise is a small, intensely colorful species with a red back, yellow nape, an iridescent green breast shield, and a bare, patterned blue crown. It is restricted to a couple of small Indonesian islands where males display and clear small ground courts.
songbird
Willow Flycatcher
A plain, olive-brown Empidonax flycatcher of willow thickets, best distinguished from close relatives by its faint or absent eye-ring and voice.
songbird
Willie Wagtail
A bold black-and-white fantail relative common across Australia, the Willie Wagtail is known for constantly wagging its long tail from side to side while perched or foraging.
songbird
Williamson's Sapsucker
A western sapsucker with unusually different male and female plumages, so distinct they were once thought to be separate species.
woodpecker
Willet
A large, plain-looking shorebird that transforms in flight, revealing a bold black-and-white wing pattern unlike any other North American sandpiper.
shorebird
Wild Turkey
A large North American gamebird with iridescent bronze-green body feathers, a broad fan-shaped tail banded in dark brown and buff, and a bare, colorful head.
gamebird
Whooping Crane
The tallest bird in North America, an endangered white crane with black wingtips visible in flight and a bare red crown, best known for its dramatic conservation recovery story.
wading bird
White-winged Grosbeak
A large, powerfully billed Himalayan finch, the male showing mostly black plumage set off by a yellow rump and a bold white wing patch.
songbird
Whooper Swan
A large Eurasian swan, entirely white with a straighter neck carriage than Mute Swan, known for its loud bugling call given in flight and on the water.
waterfowl
White-winged Dove
A brown-gray desert dove readily identified by a bold white stripe along the edge of the folded wing, visible both perched and in flight.
dove pigeon
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
White-winged Crossbill
A boreal finch with a crossed bill like its relative the Red Crossbill, but immediately told apart by two bold white wing bars on black wings.
songbird
White Woodpecker
An unusually pale South American woodpecker, mostly white with contrasting black wings and back and a patch of bare yellow facial skin.
woodpecker
White-throated Toucan
The White-throated Toucan is one of the largest Amazonian toucans, known for its oversized bicolored bill and bold white throat patch set against jet-black plumage. It moves through the rainforest canopy in noisy family groups, hopping between branches rather than flying long distances.
other
White-winged Chough
A black, red-eyed Australian bird that lives in cooperative family groups and builds distinctive mud nests in eucalypt woodland.
corvid
White-throated Caracara
A southern Andean raptor closely related to the Mountain Caracara, distinguished by a white throat patch separated from its white belly by a solid black chest band.
raptor
White-tipped Dove
A stocky, plain grayish-brown dove of tropical and subtropical woodland, best identified by the crisp white tips on its outer tail feathers and its low, mournful call.
dove pigeon
White-throated Kingfisher
A widespread Asian kingfisher combining a rich chestnut body with a brilliant turquoise back, often perched conspicuously on wires and fence posts.
other
White-throated Swift
A boldly patterned black-and-white swift of western cliffs and canyons, easily recognized by its striking contrast and remarkably fast, direct flight.
other
White-throated Magpie-Jay
A dramatic Central American jay with a long, forward-curling crest and an exceptionally long, graduated blue-and-white tail.
corvid
White-throated Thrush
The White-throated Thrush is a widespread Central and South American forest thrush, identified by its plain olive-brown body and a contrasting white throat marked with dark streaking.
songbird
White-throated Bee-eater
A slender, streamlined bee-eater of Africa's Sahel belt, green-bodied with a crisp white throat and forehead and long wispy tail streamers that trail behind it in flight.
other
White-throated Sparrow
The White-throated Sparrow is easily identified by its crisp white throat patch and small yellow lore spot, occurring in two crown-striped color morphs.
songbird
White-tailed Ptarmigan
The smallest ptarmigan species and the only one with an all-white tail year-round, found on high alpine tundra of western North America.
gamebird
White-throated Robin
The White-throated Robin is a strikingly patterned Old World songbird, with breeding males showing slate-gray upperparts, orange underparts, and a bold white throat outlined in black.
songbird
White-tailed Eagle
A massive coastal eagle whose short, white, wedge-shaped tail feathers and pale straw head contrast strongly with dark brown body plumage in adults.
raptor
White-tailed Kite
A pale, falcon-shaped kite known for hovering over open fields, with soft gray-and-white feathers and a distinctive black shoulder patch.
raptor
White-tailed Hawk
A handsome open-country hawk with a gray back, white underparts, rufous shoulders, and a crisp white tail marked by a single bold black band near the tip.
raptor
Tricolored Blackbird
The Tricolored Blackbird is a highly colonial marsh-nesting blackbird, similar to the Red-winged Blackbird but distinguished by a white (rather than yellow) border on its red shoulder patch.
songbird
White-necked Crow
A large Caribbean crow that looks entirely black at rest but reveals white feather bases on the neck when feathers are disturbed.
corvid
White-rumped Sandpiper
A long-distance migrant sandpiper best identified in flight by its entirely white rump, unlike the dark-centered rump of most similar species.
shorebird
White-fronted Bee-eater
A social African bee-eater notable for its crimson throat and white forehead, nesting in dense colonies along riverbanks.
other
Tui
The Tui is a New Zealand honeyeater whose plumage looks black at a distance but shimmers with iridescent green, blue, and bronze up close, set off by two curled white throat tufts.
songbird
White-faced Ibis
A close relative of the Glossy Ibis found in the Americas, sharing similar rich chestnut plumage with an iridescent sheen, but distinguished in breeding adults by a thin band of white feathers bordering the bare red facial skin.
wading bird
Thick-billed Longspur
The Thick-billed Longspur is a shortgrass prairie songbird whose breeding males show a black cap and breast crescent set against gray-brown plumage, identified partly by its notably stout bill.
songbird
White-eyed Vireo
The White-eyed Vireo is a small, feisty vireo of dense thickets, marked by yellow spectacles and yellow-washed wing bars, with adults showing a distinctive pale iris.
songbird