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.
Hairy Woodpecker
A larger look-alike of the Downy Woodpecker, distinguished by its longer bill and plain, unspotted white outer tail feathers.
woodpecker
Greater Flamingo
The largest flamingo species, with pale pink body plumage that hides bold black flight feathers revealed only in flight.
wading bird
American White Pelican
A massive, brilliant white pelican with strikingly black flight feathers visible in flight, one of the largest birds in North America.
seabird
White-tailed Kite
A pale, falcon-shaped kite known for hovering over open fields, with soft gray-and-white feathers and a distinctive black shoulder patch.
raptor
Red Junglefowl
The wild ancestor of the domestic chicken, with males displaying glossy orange-gold neck hackles and long, curved, iridescent black tail feathers.
gamebird
Red-billed Streamertail
Jamaica's national bird, the Red-billed Streamertail is famed for the male's extraordinarily long, curved tail feathers that produce a humming sound in flight.
hummingbird
Orange-winged Amazon
The Orange-winged Amazon is a mid-sized, widespread South American parrot named for the bright orange patch revealed in its flight feathers.
parrot
Song Sparrow
The Song Sparrow is a widespread, geographically variable sparrow whose brown-streaked feathers often converge into a distinctive central dark spot on the breast.
songbird
Rufous-legged Owl
The Rufous-legged Owl is a temperate-forest owl of Chile and Argentina named for the warm rufous feathering that covers its legs down to the toes.
owl
Hawfinch
A bull-necked, massive-billed finch whose wing feathers include uniquely curved, hooked secondaries found in no other European songbird.
songbird
Green Junglefowl
An Indonesian junglefowl covered in glossy, scale-patterned green-black feathers, with a rounded, multicolored comb unlike any other junglefowl species.
gamebird
Brown Kiwi
A flightless, nocturnal New Zealand bird with shaggy, hair-like feathers and a long probing bill used to find invertebrates in leaf litter.
other
Black-headed Mountain Finch
A high-altitude finch of the Himalayas and Central Asian ranges, known for its blackish head and body offset by rosy-pink wing feathers.
songbird
Greater Sage-Grouse
North America's largest grouse, famous for the male's elaborate lek display featuring spiky tail feathers fanned upward and inflated yellow air sacs on a white breast.
gamebird
Violet Sabrewing
A large, deep violet Central American hummingbird named for the thickened, curved shafts of its outer primary feathers, a structural feature unique to sabrewing hummingbirds.
hummingbird
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
Victoria Crowned Pigeon
The Victoria Crowned Pigeon is one of the largest pigeons alive, topped with an elaborate lace-like fan of blue feathers tipped in white.
dove pigeon
Tawny Owl
A stocky woodland owl whose bark-patterned, silent-edged feathers make it one of the most cryptically camouflaged birds in the forest.
owl
Carolina Chickadee
The Carolina Chickadee is the southeastern counterpart to the Black-capped Chickadee, producing nearly identical tiny black-capped, gray-backed feathers.
songbird
Mitred Conure
A largely green Andean conure marked by variable patches of red mottling around the face and eyes, along with scattered red feathering on the wings and legs.
parrot
Mistle Thrush
The largest and boldest-marked of the common European thrushes, with large, rounded blackish spots on cream underparts and white corners visible on the outer tail feathers.
songbird
Meadow Pipit
The Meadow Pipit is a small, streaky brown songbird of open country, its cryptic, heavily streaked feathers providing camouflage against grass and heather.
songbird
Masked Booby
The largest booby species, with a clean white body set off by black flight feathers, a black tail, and a dark facial mask around the bill.
seabird
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