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.
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
Sooty Owl
A dark, striking barn-owl relative of Australian and New Guinean rainforest, its sooty gray-black feathers finely speckled with silvery white, unlike any other owl in its range.
owl
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
Blue-winged Warbler
A bright yellow-headed warbler with blue-gray wings marked by two white wing bars and a thin black line through the eye, closely related to and often hybridizing with the Golden-winged Warbler.
songbird
Eurasian Jay
A shy woodland corvid best known for its brilliant sky-blue, black-barred wing covert feathers — among the most eye-catching and easily recognized feathers found in temperate woodland.
corvid
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
Aztec Thrush
The Aztec Thrush is a boldly patterned montane thrush of Mexican cloud forest, marked by striking white wing patches and white-tipped tail feathers against dark brown-black body plumage.
songbird
Yellow Grosbeak
A large, big-billed songbird of Mexican dry forests, the Yellow Grosbeak shows a golden-yellow body set off by boldly patterned black-and-white wings.
songbird
White Stork
A large, unmistakable white stork with black wing feathers and a bright red bill and legs, famous for its rooftop nests and long migrations between Europe and Africa.
wading bird
Welcome Swallow
The Welcome Swallow is a small, agile aerial insectivore with glossy blue-black upperparts, a rufous face, and a deeply forked tail, common over open country and towns.
songbird
Wattled Crane
The largest crane in Africa, a grey wading bird with a black cap, striking white feathers hanging from the throat, and long fleshy wattles dangling below the face.
wading bird
Tufted Duck
The Tufted Duck is a strikingly patterned Eurasian diving duck, easily recognized by the male's drooping head tuft and sharp contrast between black upperparts and white flanks.
waterfowl
Satin Bowerbird
The Satin Bowerbird is famous for the male's glossy blue-black plumage and violet eyes, and for its habit of building and decorating an elaborate bower with blue objects to attract mates.
songbird
Red-breasted Meadowlark
A grassland songbird of South America, with males showing a striking bright red throat and breast against an otherwise black body, while females are cryptically streaked brown.
songbird
Powerful Woodpecker
A large woodpecker of Andean cloud forest, closely related to the Crimson-crested and Magellanic Woodpeckers but with distinctive buffy, barred underparts rather than clean black-and-white.
woodpecker
Oriental Magpie-Robin
A familiar garden songbird of South and Southeast Asia, glossy black and white with a long tail it habitually holds cocked upward, known for its rich, musical song.
songbird
Northern Flicker
A large, brown-barred woodpecker best identified by the bright yellow or salmon-red shafts of its flight feathers, along with a black chest crescent and spotted underside.
woodpecker
Ruddy Turnstone
A boldly patterned, harlequin-like shorebird known for flipping stones and debris in search of food, with breeding feathers combining rufous, black, and white in a striking tortoiseshell pattern.
shorebird
Rivoli's Hummingbird
One of the largest hummingbirds in the United States, appearing nearly black in dim light until its violet crown and emerald throat flash brilliantly in direct sun.
hummingbird
Red-throated Caracara
A loud, glossy black rainforest raptor of the Amazon and Central America, with a bare red throat and face and a striking white belly patch, often heard before it is seen.
raptor
Fish Crow
A slender, glossy all-black corvid of coastal and riverine eastern North America, distinguished from the larger American Crow mainly by voice and slightly smaller size.
corvid
Common Raven
One of the largest songbirds in the world, the Common Raven produces long, heavy, glossy-black feathers with a pronounced iridescent sheen and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail profile.
corvid
Common Pochard
The Common Pochard is a Eurasian diving duck notable for the male's warm chestnut head and contrasting black breast, set against a pale, finely patterned gray body.
waterfowl
Common Myna
A bold, adaptable brown songbird with a glossy black head and bright yellow bare skin patch around the eye, now established in cities across much of the world.
songbird