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.
Inca Dove
A small, pale dove with an overall scaly appearance created by dark-edged feathers, common around towns and arid scrub of the southwestern United States and Mexico.
dove pigeon
Mourning Dove
A common, slender dove whose long, pointed, white-edged tail feathers and soft muted tan-brown coloring make it a familiar sight and sound across open country.
dove pigeon
Wompoo Fruit Dove
The Wompoo Fruit Dove is one of the largest and most colorful fruit doves, showing bold blocks of grey, purple, green, and yellow across its plumage.
dove pigeon
Common Bronzewing
A widespread Australian woodland pigeon named for the shimmering bronze-and-green iridescent patches across its folded wings, set off by a pale cream forehead.
dove pigeon
European Turtle Dove
A small, warmly colored migratory dove with a tortoiseshell-patterned wing and a neat black-and-white striped neck patch found in no other common European dove.
dove pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
A pale, stocky dove readily identified by the black half-collar on its nape and its square tail's bold white terminal band, now common across much of North America.
dove pigeon
Ruddy Ground Dove
A tiny, warm rufous-colored dove common in open country across the American tropics, with males showing rich cinnamon plumage and black-spotted wings.
dove pigeon
Rook
A glossy, all-black farmland corvid recognized in life by its bare greyish face skin and shaggy thigh feathering, and in feather form by its strong purple-blue sheen.
corvid
Regent Parrot
The Regent Parrot is a slender, long-tailed Australian parrot in which males are largely bright yellow with bold red and black wing markings, while females are a much duller olive-green.
parrot
Purple Sandpiper
A stocky, dark-plumaged sandpiper of wave-battered rocky coastlines, its feathers showing a subtle purplish gloss on slaty-gray upperparts unlike any other North Atlantic shorebird.
shorebird
Indian Eagle-Owl
A large, tawny-buff eagle-owl of rocky ravines and scrub across the Indian subcontinent, its feathers boldly streaked and barred in dark brown against a warm buff ground.
owl
Merlin
A small, fast, direct-flying falcon of open northern landscapes, males showing slate-blue upperparts while females and juveniles are brown, both with heavily streaked underparts and no bold facial moustache.
raptor
Cape Petrel
A striking black-and-white seabird whose checkered, piebald wing and back pattern make it one of the most easily recognized petrels of southern seas.
seabird
Pinyon Jay
A uniformly blue, short-tailed, crestless jay of the western pinyon-juniper woodlands, famous for its large nomadic flocks and close relationship with pine seeds.
corvid
Pharaoh Eagle-Owl
A pale, sandy-toned eagle-owl of North African and Middle Eastern deserts, its feathers finely streaked and vermiculated to blend with rock and sand.
owl
Hume's Owl
Hume's Owl is a pale, desert-adapted tawny owl of the Middle East whose sandy, finely barred feathers blend seamlessly with rock and canyon walls.
owl
Surfbird
A stocky, rock-loving shorebird that breeds on remote Alaskan mountain tundra and winters almost entirely along rocky Pacific coastlines, easily told by its bold black tail band and heavily marked breeding underparts.
shorebird
Brush Bronzewing
A ground-loving Australian pigeon named for the shimmering bronze, green, and purple spots that gleam across its folded wings.
dove pigeon
Bateleur
A striking African eagle relative known for its extremely short tail and rocking, tightrope-walker flight style, with black body plumage, a chestnut back, and pale flight feathers.
raptor
Honey Buzzard
The Honey Buzzard is a highly variable Eurasian raptor specialized in raiding wasp and bee nests, recognizable by its small, pigeon-like head, dense scale-like facial feathers for protection, and boldly banded tail.
raptor
Dodo
A large, flightless pigeon relative once native to Mauritius, known for its stout grey-brown body, oversized hooked bill, and small, curled tuft of tail feathers; it has been extinct since the late 1600s.
dove pigeon
Barrow's Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye is a striking western and northern diving duck distinguished from the similar Common Goldeneye by a crescent-shaped white face patch and bolder black markings on the back.
waterfowl
Striated Caracara
A bold, famously curious raptor of the Falkland Islands and southernmost Patagonia, showing dark brown, pale-streaked plumage well suited to its wind-scoured island habitat.
raptor
Cape Crow
A slender, all-black crow of southern and eastern Africa's open grasslands, notable for its long, thin bill.
corvid