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.
Pyrrhuloxia
A desert relative of the Northern Cardinal, the Pyrrhuloxia is soft gray overall with splashes of red on the crest, face, and underparts, plus a distinctive stubby yellow bill.
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
Pine Grosbeak
A large, tame northern finch with a stout bill, rosy-pink males and grey-and-yellow females, and bold white wing bars visible in flight.
songbird
Baltimore Oriole
A vividly colored eastern songbird whose adult males show a striking contrast of flame-orange and black feathers, best known for weaving an elaborate hanging nest.
songbird
Black Guillemot
A small, sooty-black auk of northern rocky coasts, easily told by a bold white oval patch on each wing and bright red legs and feet.
seabird
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
Southern Ground Hornbill
The Southern Ground Hornbill is a large, mostly terrestrial hornbill of southern African savanna, easily told by its black plumage, bare red facial skin, and heavy dark bill. It walks in small family groups across open grassland hunting for animal prey.
other
Lineated Woodpecker
A widespread Neotropical woodpecker with a shaggy red crest and bold white stripes running down the sides of its neck, common in forest edge habitats from Mexico to northern Argentina.
woodpecker
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
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
Dark-breasted Rosefinch
An unusually plain rosefinch, lacking the streaking typical of the group, with a dusky rosy-brown body and only a subtle pink wash.
songbird
Greater Bird-of-paradise
The Greater Bird-of-paradise is famous for the male's cascading yellow and white flank plumes, displayed during elaborate group courtship gatherings. It lives in the lowland rainforest canopy of New Guinea and the Aru Islands.
songbird
Yellow-billed Spoonbill
An Australian endemic spoonbill with pale yellow bill and legs, generally less gregarious than the Royal Spoonbill and often found alone or in small groups at inland wetlands.
wading bird
Black-bellied Plover
The largest and most widespread of the golden-plover group, told from true golden-plovers by white-and-black (not golden) upperpart spangling and diagnostic black underwing feathers.
shorebird
Parrot Crossbill
A heavy-billed northern finch specialized on pine cones, the largest of the crossbills with a correspondingly massive, deep bill.
songbird
Tristram's Bunting
An East Asian bunting with a bold black-and-white striped head and a chestnut breast band, breeding in northern forests.
songbird
Magnolia Warbler
A small, boldly patterned wood-warbler with a black "necklace" of streaking on a yellow breast, breeding in northern conifer forests.
songbird
Noisy Miner
A vocal, highly social Australian honeyeater, the Noisy Miner has gray body plumage, a black cap, and a bright yellow bill and bare eye-patch, and is well known for its bold group defense of territory.
songbird
Blue-winged Kookaburra
A northern relative of the Laughing Kookaburra, distinguished by more extensive blue in the wings and a harsher, less musical call.
other
Black-throated Green Warbler
A small wood-warbler with a bright yellow face framed by an olive-green crown and a black throat, breeding in northern conifer forests.
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
Pied Falconet
A strikingly pied falconet with clean black-and-white plumage and no rufous coloring at all, found across southern China and northern Southeast Asia.
raptor
Palm Warbler
A ground-foraging wood-warbler with a rufous cap in breeding plumage and constant tail-bobbing, breeding in northern bogs and wintering in the southeastern US.
songbird
Philadelphia Vireo
The Philadelphia Vireo is a small, plain-plumaged vireo of northern woodlands, often confused with the Warbling Vireo and Tennessee Warbler due to its subtle coloring.
songbird