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.
Sarus Crane
The tallest of all flying birds, a pale grey Asian crane with a strikingly red bare head and upper neck, resident year-round across its wetland range.
wading bird
Mauritius Kestrel
The Mauritius Kestrel is a small, endemic island falcon famed as a major conservation success story, having recovered from a population of just a handful of individuals to a stable population in native forest habitat.
raptor
Eurasian Spoonbill
A tall, all-white wading bird with a distinctive spoon-shaped bill, recognized by its clean white plumage and, in breeding season, a shaggy nape crest and pale yellow breast band.
wading bird
Yellow-billed Magpie
A California endemic magpie nearly identical to its black-billed relative in plumage, but distinguished by a bright yellow bill and yellow skin patch around the eye.
corvid
Black-necked Crane
A high-altitude specialist crane of the Tibetan Plateau, pale grey overall with a black head and neck and a bare red crown, adapted to some of the highest wetland habitats used by any crane species.
wading bird
Yellow-bellied Siskin
A tropical montane finch with a black head and back offset by warm yellow underparts, found in cloud-forest edges and clearings.
songbird
Magellanic Woodpecker
A spectacular, crow-sized woodpecker of Patagonian beech forests, with the male's entire head blazing red and crowned by a distinctive forward-curling crest.
woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
A migratory eastern woodpecker known for drilling neat rows of small holes in tree bark to feed on sap.
woodpecker
Greater Adjutant
A very large, rare Asian scavenging stork with a bald head, a huge bill, and a pale throat pouch, now restricted to a few strongholds in India and Cambodia after severe historical decline.
wading bird
Wood Stork
A large white stork with sharply contrasting black flight feathers and tail, and a bare, dark gray-black head and neck rather than feathered skin.
wading bird
Hadada Ibis
A loud, common African ibis best known for its raucous dawn call and the iridescent bronze-green patch on its otherwise plain grey-brown wings.
wading bird
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
Grey Partridge
A dumpy, farmland gamebird with finely vermiculated grey body feathers, a bright orange face, and a distinctive chestnut horseshoe marking on the underparts.
gamebird
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
Demoiselle Crane
The smallest of the world's cranes, a blue-grey bird with a black head and breast set off by long, drooping white ear-tuft plumes trailing behind the eyes.
wading bird
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
Bonelli's Eagle
An agile, cliff-nesting eagle whose pale, finely streaked underparts and boldly banded grey tail distinguish it from the darker, more uniformly plumaged eagles sharing its range.
raptor
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
Long-billed Curlew
North America's largest shorebird, the Long-billed Curlew shows warm cinnamon-buff plumage and an extraordinarily long, downcurved bill, with feathers that echo the buffy tones of dry grassland.
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
Upland Sandpiper
A grassland shorebird with a small head, long neck, and long tail, the Upland Sandpiper shows richly patterned buffy-brown feathers with dark barring and a scaled look, entirely adapted to life away from water.
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
Aplomado Falcon
The Aplomado Falcon is a striking, slender falcon of open grasslands from the southern US through Central and South America, with a distinctive black chest band and rufous belly.
raptor
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
Whooping Crane
The tallest bird in North America, a white crane with black wingtips visible in flight and a bare red crown, best known for its dramatic conservation recovery story.
wading bird
Williamson's Sapsucker
A western sapsucker with unusually different male and female plumages, so distinct they were once thought to be separate species.
woodpecker
White-naped Crane
An East Asian crane with grey body plumage, a bold white stripe running down the nape and hindneck, and extensive bare red facial skin.
wading bird
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
Philippine Eagle
The Philippine Eagle is a huge forest eagle with brown upperparts, creamy-white underparts, and a shaggy crest of long brown-and-cream feathers that it raises when alert.
raptor
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
Squatter Pigeon
The Squatter Pigeon is a ground-dwelling Australian pigeon with a bold black-and-white facial pattern, well camouflaged in grassy woodland aside from its striking head markings.
dove pigeon
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
Western Crowned Pigeon
The Western Crowned Pigeon is a massive blue-grey pigeon topped with a rounded, solid-colored fan crest, one of three giant crowned pigeons of New Guinea.
dove pigeon
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
Red Phalarope
The most oceanic of the phalaropes, the Red Phalarope shows brick-red underparts in breeding plumage and pale gray winter feathers, with a stouter bill than its phalarope relatives.
shorebird
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
Spanish Imperial Eagle
A rare Iberian eagle marked by a bold, creamy-white leading-edge patch on the upperwing that stands out sharply against otherwise blackish-brown body plumage.
raptor
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
Barn Owl
An elegant, heart-faced owl whose golden, finely speckled upperparts and ghostly pale underside make its feathers instantly distinctive among owls.
owl
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
Bulwer's Pheasant
A Bornean forest pheasant with glossy blue-black plumage, an extraordinary curved white tail, and bright red facial wattles that expand dramatically during display.
gamebird
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
Glaucous-winged Gull
A common gull of the North Pacific coast, the Glaucous-winged Gull shows pale gray wingtip feathers with little or no black, differing subtly from most other large gulls, and frequently hybridizes with related species.
seabird
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
Red-legged Partridge
A plump, ground-dwelling gamebird whose boldly barred flank feathers in black, white, and chestnut are unmistakable at close range.
gamebird
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
Herring Gull
A familiar large gull of the Old World, the Herring Gull shows pale gray mantle feathers, black-and-white patterned wingtips, and pink legs, taking several years to reach its fully patterned adult plumage.
seabird
Eurasian Dotterel
A confiding alpine plover with a bold white eyebrow stripe and a chestnut breast band bordered in black and white, the Eurasian Dotterel shows reversed sex roles typical of some plovers.
shorebird