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.
Citril Finch
A small mountain finch of southwestern Europe with plain greenish-yellow plumage and a grey nape, lacking the black facial markings of related siskins.
songbird
Great Frigatebird
A large, soaring tropical seabird closely resembling the Magnificent Frigatebird, with glossy black males and females marked by a white breast patch and pale wing bar.
seabird
Chinese Grosbeak
A medium-sized East Asian finch with a black head, gray-brown body, and a bright yellow bill tipped in black, smaller and more widespread than its relative the Japanese Grosbeak.
songbird
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
Common Bronzewing
A widespread Australian woodland pigeon named for the shimmering bronze-and-green iridescent patches across its folded wings, set off by a pale cream forehead.
dove pigeon
Great Cormorant
A large, glossy black cormorant with a white throat patch and, during the breeding season, a striking white patch on each flank.
seabird
Common Blackbird
A familiar thrush of European gardens, with males showing sleek all-black plumage and a bright bill, while females and juveniles are a more camouflaged sooty brown with subtle mottling.
songbird
Great Egret
A tall, all-white heron with a long yellow bill and black legs, famous for the delicate plumes it grows during the breeding season.
wading bird
Cliff Swallow
A colonial swallow with a pale buffy rump, chestnut face and throat, and a pale forehead patch, best known for its gourd-shaped mud nests.
songbird
Golden Tanager
A vividly golden-yellow tanager of Andean cloud forests, marked by a bold black ear patch and dark streaking on the back and wings. Sexes look alike, and it often travels in mixed-species flocks through forest edge and secondary growth.
songbird
Clay-colored Sparrow
A pale, buffy sparrow with a gray nape and crisp brown ear patch outline, common in brushy prairie habitats.
songbird
Grass Owl
A ground-nesting barn-owl relative of tall grasslands from Asia to Australia, with long slender legs and golden-buff to dark brown feathers finely spotted, adapted to a life spent low over open grass.
owl
Chestnut-sided Warbler
A small wood-warbler with a bold chestnut stripe along white flanks and a yellow-green crown, common in shrubby second-growth habitat.
songbird
Golden-winged Warbler
A striking blue-gray warbler with a bright yellow crown and wing patch, set off by a bold black throat and facial mask in adult males, known for hybridizing with the Blue-winged Warbler.
songbird
Chilean Flamingo
A pale pink South American flamingo distinguished by grey legs with contrasting pink knee and ankle joints.
wading bird
Golden-cheeked Warbler
The Golden-cheeked Warbler is a striking black-and-yellow warbler that breeds only in the Ashe juniper woodlands of central Texas.
songbird
Chukar
A rocky-hillside partridge known for the sharp black necklace stripe framing its pale throat and the bold black-and-chestnut bars along its flanks.
gamebird
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
Chimney Swift
A cigar-shaped aerial bird with uniformly sooty gray-brown plumage and stiff, spine-tipped tail feathers used to brace against vertical surfaces.
other
Golden-fronted Woodpecker
A Texas and Mexican woodpecker with a barred black-and-white back and golden-yellow patches on the nape and face rather than red.
woodpecker
Chipping Sparrow
The Chipping Sparrow is a small, neat sparrow recognized in breeding plumage by its bright rufous crown feathers over a clean, unstreaked gray breast.
songbird
Grace's Warbler
Grace's Warbler is a small, treetop-loving warbler of southwestern pine forests, showing a bright yellow throat set against a gray-streaked back.
songbird
Collared Scops Owl
The Collared Scops Owl is a small Asian owl named for the pale buffy band across its hindneck, set within an overall brown, finely mottled plumage.
owl
Golden-breasted Bunting
A brightly marked African bunting with a striped black-and-white head and vivid yellow underparts, common in savanna woodland.
songbird
Collared Inca
A dark, glossy Andean hummingbird easily recognized by the bold white patch across its chest, contrasting sharply with its otherwise blackish-green plumage.
hummingbird
Gray-cheeked Thrush
A subdued, cold-toned thrush of the far north, distinguished from similar species mainly by its plain grayish face and weak or absent eye-ring.
songbird
Collared Grosbeak
A large Himalayan finch with a black hooded head and collar contrasting boldly with bright yellow body plumage.
songbird
Goldcrest
Europe's smallest bird, identifiable even from a single tiny feather by its vivid black-bordered crown stripe — orange in males, yellow in females — set against olive-green plumage.
songbird
Collared Forest Falcon
A large, owl-faced Neotropical forest raptor with short rounded wings and a long barred tail, known for a dark neck collar and loud calls echoing through the forest at dawn and dusk.
raptor
Golden-winged Sunbird
A striking East African highland sunbird whose breeding males combine iridescent bronze-green plumage with bright yellow wing patches and long, elegant tail streamers.
songbird
Common Buzzard
The Common Buzzard is a medium-large soaring raptor with broad, fingered wing feathers and a highly variable brown plumage, ranging from very dark to pale, that makes each individual's feathers somewhat distinct.
raptor
Gold-naped Finch
A distinctive Himalayan finch whose male displays a black head brightened by a golden-yellow nape patch above a warm orange-brown body.
songbird
Common Bullfinch
A stocky, shy woodland finch with males showing rosy-pink underparts against a blue-grey back and black cap, and both sexes sharing a bold white rump patch that flashes distinctively in flight.
songbird
Golden Pheasant Ring-necked Cross
An ornamental strain combining the fiery golden-yellow crest and cape of the Golden Pheasant with ring-necked pheasant influence, widely kept in aviculture for its dazzling plumage.
gamebird
Common Bulbul
A widespread African songbird with plain brown plumage, a darker cap, and a bright yellow vent, common in gardens, scrub, and savanna woodlands.
songbird
Golden-olive Woodpecker
A Neotropical woodpecker with a warm olive-golden back and grey face, ranging from Mexico through Central America into the Andean foothills of South America.
woodpecker
Collared Crow
A large, distinctive East Asian crow with a bold white band across the nape, neck, and breast set against black plumage.
corvid
Golden Pheasant
A brilliantly colored pheasant native to central China, with males showing a golden crest, an orange fan-shaped cape, and a very long, finely barred tail.
gamebird
Collared Aracari
The Collared Aracari is a mid-sized toucan with bright yellow underparts crossed by a dark belt of spots, plus a narrow chestnut collar across the nape. It ranges through Central American and northern South American forests in small, active flocks.
other
Golden-hooded Tanager
A jewel-like songbird of Central American and northern South American forests, the Golden-hooded Tanager combines a black facial mask with a turquoise-and-gold crown and blue-green body.
songbird
Colima Warbler
A plain gray-brown warbler with a bright rufous-orange undertail patch, found in the United States only in high-elevation oak-pine canyons of a single mountain range.
songbird
Glaucous Gull
A massive, pale Arctic gull, the Glaucous Gull is unusual among large gulls for lacking black wingtips entirely, showing instead uniformly pale gray and white feathers well suited to its icy northern range.
seabird
Cocoi Heron
The South American counterpart to the Great Blue Heron, with a bold black cap and crisp white neck.
wading bird
Golden-crowned Kinglet
A tiny, hyperactive conifer specialist named for its glowing crown patch, with soft olive body feathers and delicately edged flight feathers scaled to its diminutive size.
songbird
Cockatiel
A slender, crested Australian parrot with soft grey plumage, a bold white wing patch, and, in males, a yellow face marked by a bright orange cheek spot.
parrot
Goffin's Cockatoo
A small white cockatoo with a subtle salmon-pink tinge at the base of the crest and between the eye and bill.
parrot
Galah
A distinctive two-toned cockatoo with a rose-pink face and underparts contrasting sharply against pale grey wings and back.
parrot
Gila Woodpecker
A common Sonoran Desert woodpecker with a plain gray-tan head and body set off by a boldly barred black-and-white back and wings.
woodpecker