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 Crossbill
A stocky finch with a distinctively crossed bill adapted for prying seeds from conifer cones, males brick-red and females olive-toned.
songbird
Black-headed Gull
A small, gregarious Old World gull whose chocolate-brown (not black) hood and white leading-edge wing wedge make it easy to pick out from mixed flocks.
seabird
Western Jackdaw
The smallest of the common European corvids, recognized by its glossy black plumage set off by a silvery-grey neck patch and a pale, staring eye.
corvid
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
Coal Tit
The smallest common European tit, with a black head, white cheeks, and a distinctive white patch on the nape, paired with buff underparts and two white wingbars on grey-olive wings.
songbird
Western Crowned Pigeon
The Western Crowned Pigeon is a massive blue-grey pigeon topped with a rounded, solid-colored fan crest, one of three giant crowned pigeons of New Guinea.
dove pigeon
Eurasian Blue Tit
A small, brightly colored garden tit with a blue crown and wings, yellow underparts, and white cheeks bordered by a thin black eye-line, among the most colorful common feathers in European gardens.
songbird
Cinereous Bunting
A pale, ash-grey bunting of southeastern European and Middle Eastern hillsides, with a faint yellow wash on the throat and underparts.
songbird
Oriental Greenfinch
An East Asian finch with olive-green body plumage and bright yellow flashes in the wings and tail, closely related to the European Greenfinch.
songbird
Sand Martin
The Sand Martin is the smallest European swallow-relative, with plain sandy-brown upperpart feathers, white underparts, and a distinctive brown breast band.
songbird
Lanner Falcon
The Lanner Falcon is a widespread African and southern European falcon recognized by its rufous cap and blue-grey back, with lightly streaked pale underparts.
raptor
Redwing
The smallest widespread European thrush, easily told from its relatives by streaked (rather than spotted) underparts and bright reddish-orange flank and underwing feathers.
songbird
Woodchat Shrike
A boldly patterned southern European shrike with a rich chestnut crown and a crisp white shoulder patch that contrasts sharply with its black wings.
songbird
Hawfinch
A bull-necked, massive-billed finch whose wing feathers include uniquely curved, hooked secondaries found in no other European songbird.
songbird
Black Woodpecker
The largest woodpecker across most of Europe and northern Asia, entirely black except for a red crown patch and a pale bill.
woodpecker
Little Tern
The Old World counterpart to the Least Tern, a tiny, fast-flying species of European, African, and Asian coasts, distinguished by its small size, yellow bill, and bold white forehead patch.
seabird
Lesser Spotted Eagle
A compact, dark brown migratory eagle of eastern European forests, distinguished from its larger relative the Greater Spotted Eagle by narrower wings and a paler crescent at the base of the outer primaries.
raptor
Middle Spotted Woodpecker
A small, delicately patterned European woodpecker of old oak woodland, easily told from the Great Spotted Woodpecker by its unbroken red cap and streaked, rather than solidly barred, flanks.
woodpecker
Yellow-legged Gull
A large, robust gull of Mediterranean and western European coasts, closely resembling other large white-headed gulls but distinguished by bright yellow legs and a somewhat darker mantle.
seabird
Little Egret
A dainty white heron of Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia, best known for its black legs and bright yellow feet.
wading bird
Long-tailed Tit
A tiny, round-bodied tit with an extraordinarily long tail exceeding its body length, patterned in black, white, and soft dusky pink, among the most distinctive silhouettes in European woodland.
songbird
Pink-footed Goose
A compact gray goose with a notably darker head and neck than its body, a short pink-banded bill, and pink legs, breeding in the far North Atlantic and wintering on European farmland.
waterfowl
Red-footed Falcon
The Red-footed Falcon is a small, gregarious falcon of eastern European and Asian steppes, males a striking dark slate-grey with rusty leggings, females patterned orange-buff with grey barring above.
raptor
Citril Finch
A small mountain finch of southwestern Europe with plain greenish-yellow plumage and a grey nape, lacking the black facial markings of related siskins.
songbird