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.
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
Cassin's Sparrow
A plain grassland sparrow best known for its distinctive skylarking display flight and musical, trilling song.
songbird
Brewer's Sparrow
A plain, pale sparrow closely tied to sagebrush habitat, known for its unusually long, complex, canary-like song.
songbird
Bell's Sparrow
A dark-headed sparrow of California scrublands, with a bold facial pattern and plainer back than its close relative, the Sagebrush Sparrow.
songbird
Zone-tailed Hawk
A blackish hawk that closely mimics the flight silhouette and dark coloring of the Turkey Vulture, distinguished mainly by its banded tail feathers.
raptor
White-tailed Hawk
A handsome open-country hawk with a gray back, white underparts, rufous shoulders, and a crisp white tail marked by a single bold black band near the tip.
raptor
Red-shouldered Hawk
The Red-shouldered Hawk is a woodland buteo with rufous-barred underparts, reddish shoulder patches, a boldly black-and-white banded tail, and a translucent pale crescent near the wingtip visible in flight.
raptor
Northern Hawk-Owl
A falcon-like, day-hunting owl of the boreal forest, with a long tail, pointed wings, and boldly barred underparts, often seen perched conspicuously atop treetops scanning for prey.
owl
Common Black Hawk
A stocky, broad-winged hawk of wooded streams and mangroves, easily told from other dark raptors by its nearly all-black plumage crossed by a single wide white tail band.
raptor
Black-collared Hawk
A striking rufous-orange wetland hawk of the Neotropics, immediately recognizable by its pale creamy head and the narrow black band crossing its upper chest.
raptor
African Harrier-Hawk
A distinctive gray African raptor known for its bare, color-changing facial skin and unusually flexible double-jointed legs, used to probe tree holes and nests for prey.
raptor
Rufous-winged Sparrow
A subtly marked desert sparrow with rufous shoulder patches and a thin dark malar stripe, largely restricted to southern Arizona.
songbird
Rufous-collared Sparrow
One of the most familiar and widespread songbirds in Latin America, recognized by its gray-and-black striped head, rufous collar across the nape, and streaked brown back. It thrives from sea level to high Andean grasslands and is equally at home in cities and open country.
songbird
White-crowned Sparrow
The White-crowned Sparrow is a clean, handsome sparrow with a bold black-and-white striped crown set above a plain, unstreaked gray face and breast.
songbird
Le Conte's Sparrow
A small, brightly colored grassland sparrow with an orange face and finely streaked, buffy underparts.
songbird
Black-throated Sparrow
A striking desert sparrow with a bold black throat patch framed by crisp white stripes on an otherwise plain gray face.
songbird
Five-striped Sparrow
A rare, boldly striped sparrow of remote desert canyons along the U.S.-Mexico borderlands, named for its five facial stripes.
songbird
Eurasian Tree Sparrow
A small farmland sparrow distinguished from its House Sparrow relative by a chestnut crown (rather than grey) and a distinct black spot on an otherwise white cheek.
songbird
White-throated Sparrow
The White-throated Sparrow is easily identified by its crisp white throat patch and small yellow lore spot, occurring in two crown-striped color morphs.
songbird
Rufous-crowned Sparrow
A plain gray-breasted sparrow of rocky, brushy hillsides, identified by its rufous crown and a bold black malar stripe.
songbird
Golden-crowned Sparrow
A large, dark sparrow of the Pacific coast known for its bold black-and-yellow crown stripe in breeding plumage.
songbird
Clay-colored Sparrow
A pale, buffy sparrow with a gray nape and crisp brown ear patch outline, common in brushy prairie habitats.
songbird
Black-chinned Sparrow
A gray-headed sparrow of arid chaparral slopes, with breeding males showing a distinctive black chin and throat patch.
songbird
American Woodcock
A round, forest-dwelling shorebird with dead-leaf camouflage plumage, an oversized bill, and unusually short, rounded wings that produce a distinctive twittering whistle in flight.
shorebird