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.
Sharp-tailed Grouse
A prairie grouse recognized by its mottled brown plumage, V-shaped chevron markings on the underside, and a short, pointed central tail used in a distinctive courtship dance.
gamebird
Rufous-tailed Hummingbird
One of the most widespread and familiar hummingbirds in its range, easily recognized by its green throat and breast set against a gray belly and a bright rufous tail.
hummingbird
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
Swallow-tailed Kite
A graceful, boldly two-toned raptor with a deeply forked tail, whose sharp black-and-white feathers are unlike almost any other North American bird of prey.
raptor
Long-tailed Duck
The Long-tailed Duck is a distinctive sea duck known for the male's elongated central tail feathers and an unusually complex sequence of plumages that change more often than in any other duck.
waterfowl
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
A mountain hummingbird of the western United States, its male showing a glowing rose-magenta throat and producing a distinctive metallic trill from its wings in flight.
hummingbird
Fan-tailed Raven
A stocky, short-tailed raven of desert and rocky habitats, easily recognized in flight by its notably short, broad, fan-shaped tail.
corvid
Green-tailed Sunbird
A Himalayan and Southeast Asian montane sunbird with a scarlet throat and back, a metallic green crown, and long green central tail streamers.
songbird
Golden-tailed Woodpecker
An African woodpecker with bold spotting on the underparts rather than barring, plus a golden tint to the tail feathers that gives the species its name.
woodpecker
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
Long-tailed Tit
A tiny, round-bodied tit with an extraordinarily long tail exceeding its body length, patterned in black, white, and soft dusky pink, among the most distinctive silhouettes in European woodland.
songbird
Long-tailed Sylph
An Andean cloud-forest hummingbird whose male trails an extravagantly long, deeply forked, iridescent blue-green tail far exceeding the length of its body.
hummingbird
Long-tailed Rosefinch
A rosefinch distinguished by its unusually long, graduated tail combined with pink and grey-brown streaked plumage in males.
songbird
Long-tailed Meadowlark
A southern South American grassland songbird whose males flash a brilliant scarlet throat and breast against blackish upperparts.
songbird
Long-tailed Jaeger
The smallest, slimmest, and most elegant jaeger, breeding adults trailing exceptionally long, thin central tail streamers behind a slender, buoyant body.
seabird
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper
A Siberian-breeding sandpiper with a rufous cap and chevron-streaked underparts, closely related to the Pectoral Sandpiper but favoring wetter, grassier habitats along its migration route to Australasia.
shorebird
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher
An unmistakable flycatcher with an extremely long, deeply forked black-and-white tail and soft salmon-pink flanks against pale gray plumage.
songbird
Fork-tailed Sunbird
A small sunbird of southern China and Southeast Asia named for its notched, forked tail, with males showing a scarlet throat and iridescent green crown.
songbird
Green-tailed Towhee
The Green-tailed Towhee is a striking western sparrow relative with olive-green wings and tail, a rufous cap, and a bold white throat, found in mountain shrublands.
songbird
Great-tailed Grackle
The Great-tailed Grackle is a large, adaptable blackbird known for the male's exceptionally long, keeled tail and glossy iridescent plumage, now common across much of the southern and central United States and beyond.
songbird
Boat-tailed Grackle
The Boat-tailed Grackle is a large coastal grackle with a long, distinctively keeled tail, males glossy black with iridescence and females a much smaller warm brown, common along Atlantic and Gulf Coast marshes.
songbird
Black-tailed Godwit
A striking Eurasian godwit with a bold black tail band, broad white wingbar, and rich chestnut breeding underparts, closely associated with lowland wet grasslands and meadows now much reduced across parts of its range.
shorebird
Band-tailed Pigeon
A large forest pigeon of the western mountains, identified by a crescent-shaped white patch on the nape and a broad pale band across the tip of an otherwise dark tail.
dove pigeon
Pin-tailed Green Pigeon
The Pin-tailed Green Pigeon is a green forest pigeon distinguished by its long, needle-like central tail feathers that extend well beyond the rest of the tail.
dove pigeon