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.
Black Stork
A shy, forest-loving relative of the White Stork with glossy black plumage, a white belly, and a red bill and legs, favoring quiet rivers and wetlands far from people.
wading bird
Crested Oropendola
A large, glossy black oropendola with a bright yellow tail, a pale ivory bill, and a small feathered crest, widespread across lowland forests of South America.
songbird
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
Crested Bunting
A South and Southeast Asian bunting easily told from all relatives by its glossy black body, chestnut wings, and prominent pointed crest.
songbird
Blackburnian Warbler
A small wood-warbler with a vivid orange throat and face set against black facial markings, breeding high in mature conifer canopy.
songbird
Chestnut-eared Bunting
An East Asian bunting best known for its rusty ear patch and a dark necklace of spots across an otherwise grey breast.
songbird
Black-whiskered Vireo
The Black-whiskered Vireo closely resembles the Red-eyed Vireo but shows a distinctive dark malar stripe, and it favors coastal mangroves and hammocks in Florida and the Caribbean.
songbird
Collared Falconet
One of the tiniest falcons in the world, showing glossy black upperparts, a crisp white collar, and a small rufous forehead patch across forest edges of South and Southeast Asia.
raptor
Black Vulture
An all-black scavenger with a short, square tail and distinctive whitish patches near the wingtips, often seen circling in groups or gathered at carcasses.
raptor
Clark's Nutcracker
A pale gray, crow-like bird of high mountain pine forests, best known for storing thousands of pine seeds each autumn to survive winter.
corvid
Black Sparrowhawk
The largest African accipiter, occurring in a striking pied form with sharply demarcated black upperparts and white underparts as well as an all-black melanistic form, both built for fast pursuit through forest canopy.
raptor
Cirl Bunting
The Cirl Bunting is a farmland songbird of southern Europe, with males showing a bold black-and-yellow striped face and an olive breast band, now a conservation success story in parts of its range.
songbird
Black Scoter
The Black Scoter is the only scoter whose breeding male shows an entirely black plumage with no white markings at all, set off by a bright orange-yellow knob at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
Cinereous Vulture
One of the heaviest flying raptors, with uniformly dark brown plumage, a dense dark ruff, and broad flight feathers adapted for soaring across open Eurasian terrain.
raptor
Black-rumped Flameback
A widespread South Asian woodpecker whose golden back is paired with a black rump, the reverse of its red-rumped Southeast Asian cousin.
woodpecker
Cinnamon Teal
A small dabbling duck whose male is a striking uniform cinnamon-red, sharing the same pale blue wing patch found in Blue-winged Teal and Northern Shoveler.
waterfowl
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
The Chestnut-backed Chickadee is a Pacific coastal chickadee whose warm chestnut-brown back and flank feathers set it apart from every other North American chickadee.
songbird
Coal Tit
The smallest common European tit, with a black head, white cheeks, and a distinctive white patch on the nape, paired with buff underparts and two white wingbars on grey-olive wings.
songbird
Chestnut Bunting
A small East Asian bunting with breeding males showing an all-chestnut head and breast band above bright yellow underparts.
songbird
Clay-colored Thrush
A plain, uniformly brown thrush of Middle America, closely related to the American Robin but lacking its bright orange breast, identified by its overall buffy-brown tone and pale bill.
songbird
Cheer Pheasant
A comparatively subdued, buff-and-grey Himalayan pheasant with a shaggy crest and a long, dark-barred tail, favoring open grassy hillsides rather than dense forest.
gamebird
Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon
The Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon is an Australian escarpment specialist whose otherwise grey-brown plumage reveals bold chestnut patches on the flight feathers when it takes wing.
dove pigeon
Chaco Owl
A dark-eyed true owl of the Gran Chaco woodlands, closely related to the Rufous-legged Owl, with densely barred brown plumage suited to dry scrub forest.
owl
Chestnut-headed Oropendola
A medium-sized oropendola with a rich chestnut head and neck contrasting against a black body, a pale bill, and a small patch of yellow at the tail tip.
songbird
Cassin's Sparrow
A plain grassland sparrow best known for its distinctive skylarking display flight and musical, trilling song.
songbird
Chestnut-fronted Macaw
A small green macaw with a brown forehead patch and a red-and-green shoulder patch, found in lowland forests across northern South America.
parrot
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
Chestnut-eared Aracari
A toucan relative of South American forests, with a huge cream-and-black bill, a chestnut patch behind the eye, and yellow underparts crossed by a bold red-and-black band.
other
Cedar Waxwing
A sleek, crested bird best known for the small, waxy red tips on its secondary wing feathers, paired with a soft brown-to-gray body and a bright yellow band across the tail tip.
songbird
Chinese Pond Heron
The East Asian counterpart to the Indian Pond Heron, sharing the same dull streaky body and dramatic white wings, but with a rich chestnut breeding wash on the head and chest.
wading bird
Cave Swallow
A close relative of Cliff Swallow with a paler, more orange-buff throat and forehead, typically found nesting in caves, culverts, and sinkholes.
songbird
Chimango Caracara
A common, uniformly brown caracara of southern South America's open country and cities, often seen scavenging in fields, parks, and roadsides.
raptor
Cattle Egret
A stocky white egret often seen far from water, following livestock and machinery to catch insects stirred up from the ground.
wading bird
Chilean Flicker
A ground-foraging flicker of Chile and Argentina, patterned in muted grays and browns to match the temperate woodland-steppe it inhabits.
woodpecker
Cassin's Vireo
Cassin's Vireo is a western woodland vireo that sits between its close relatives in coloring, showing a muted, intermediate blend of gray and olive tones.
songbird
Chihuahuan Raven
A desert raven of the American Southwest, smaller than the Common Raven, with hidden white feather bases at the neck.
corvid
Cassin's Finch
A western North American mountain finch whose males show a bright rosy-red crown sharply contrasting with a brown-streaked back.
songbird
Cape Petrel
A striking black-and-white seabird whose checkered, piebald wing and back pattern make it one of the most easily recognized petrels of southern seas.
seabird
Caspian Tern
The largest tern in the world, approaching the size of some gulls, unmistakable for its massive deep red bill, heavy build, and loud, harsh call.
seabird
Black Rosy-Finch
A dark, blackish-brown alpine finch of western North America's highest peaks, set off by rosy-pink wing feathering and a grey crown patch.
songbird
Carib Grackle
A small, glossy grackle common around towns and farmland in the southern Caribbean and northern South America, recognized by its keel-shaped tail and noisy flocking habits.
songbird
Blakiston's Fish Owl
One of the largest owls on Earth, a massive, shaggy fish-hunting owl of remote river forests in the Russian Far East and Japan, with correspondingly huge, loosely structured feathers.
owl
Capped Heron
A softly colored South American heron with creamy buff-white plumage, a glossy black cap, and long pale plumes trailing from the crown.
wading bird
Black-throated Blue Warbler
A striking deep-blue wood-warbler with black face and flanks in the male, breeding in eastern deciduous forests with a dense shrub layer.
songbird
Cape Gannet
A large white seabird closely related to the Northern Gannet, distinguished by a black tail and a black band crossing the secondary flight feathers.
seabird
Black Woodpecker
The largest woodpecker across most of Europe and northern Asia, entirely black except for a red crown patch and a pale bill.
woodpecker
Cape Crow
A slender, all-black crow of southern and eastern Africa's open grasslands, notable for its long, thin bill.
corvid
Black-winged Stilt
A strikingly patterned wader whose feathers form a sharp black-and-white contrast, set off by improbably long pink-red legs.
shorebird