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.
Red-headed Woodpecker
One of the most strikingly patterned North American woodpeckers, with an entirely crimson-red head set against bold black-and-white body plumage.
woodpecker
Red-bellied Woodpecker
A common eastern woodpecker with a finely barred, ladder-like back pattern unique among familiar woodpeckers, and a red cap or nape depending on sex.
woodpecker
Pale-billed Woodpecker
A large Middle American woodpecker closely related to the Crimson-crested and Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, recognized by its fully red head and pale, ivory-toned bill.
woodpecker
Ladder-backed Woodpecker
A small desert woodpecker whose black-and-white back forms a neat, closely spaced ladder pattern, common in cactus and mesquite scrub.
woodpecker
Japanese Pygmy Woodpecker
A small East Asian woodpecker with a softer, browner overall tone than its pygmy woodpecker relatives, common in wooded parks and gardens in Japan and neighboring regions.
woodpecker
Ivory-billed Woodpecker
An extremely large, historically iconic woodpecker of southeastern US bottomland forest, now exceedingly rare, recognized by its bold white wing patches and ivory-colored bill.
woodpecker
European Green Woodpecker
The European Green Woodpecker is a large, ground-feeding woodpecker with olive-green body feathers, a bright yellow rump, and a red crown, feeding more on the ground than most of its relatives.
woodpecker
Cream-colored Woodpecker
An unusually pale Amazonian woodpecker, clothed almost entirely in a uniform creamy-straw color rather than the bold contrast typical of most woodpeckers.
woodpecker
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
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
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
Black-backed Woodpecker
A fire-and-beetle-kill specialist of North American conifer forests, told from the Three-toed Woodpeckers by its solid, unbarred glossy black back.
woodpecker
American Three-toed Woodpecker
The North American counterpart of the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, a boreal conifer specialist with a yellow-capped male and barred black-and-white flanks.
woodpecker
Northern Grey-headed Woodpecker
A West and Central African woodpecker with a grey head contrasting against an olive-green back, part of a wider grey-headed woodpecker complex found across the continent.
woodpecker
Grey-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
A small, widespread Asian woodpecker with a grey-brown crown and crisply barred back, closely resembling other pygmy woodpeckers across its broad range.
woodpecker
Brown-capped Pygmy Woodpecker
One of the smallest South Asian woodpeckers, told from other pygmy woodpeckers mainly by its brownish, rather than blackish, crown.
woodpecker
Great Knot
The largest of the knots, this East Asian-Australasian Flyway specialist shows a densely spotted blackish breast in breeding plumage and a notably longer, heavier bill than its close relative the Red Knot.
shorebird
Eurasian Bittern
A large, superbly camouflaged heron of Old World reedbeds, more often detected by its deep booming call than seen in its dense marsh habitat.
wading bird
Great Grey Shrike
A pale gray Eurasian predator songbird with a black mask and long tail, often seen perched conspicuously atop bushes or wires while watching for prey.
songbird
Spotted Nutcracker
A chunky brown corvid covered in bold white spots, found in coniferous forests across Eurasia, where it caches nuts and pine seeds for winter.
corvid
Eurasian Wryneck
A cryptically patterned, bark-camouflaged relative of true woodpeckers that lacks their stiff tail and chisel bill, famous for twisting its neck in a slow, snake-like threat display.
woodpecker
Greater Spotted Eagle
A dark, wetland-loving eagle of boreal and eastern Eurasian forests, larger and blacker than its close relative the Lesser Spotted Eagle, with juveniles showing a striking frosted pattern of white wing spots.
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
Greater Yellownape
A large, uniformly olive-green woodpecker of Asian forests, best recognized by its shaggy yellow nape crest rather than the black-and-white patterning typical of pied woodpeckers.
woodpecker