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.

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Crimson-bellied Conure

A small Amazonian conure with green upperparts and a grey breast that give way to a strikingly deep crimson-red patch across the lower belly.

parrot

Canyon Towhee

The Canyon Towhee is a plain, dusty-brown ground bird of southwestern deserts and canyons, distinguished by a rufous crown and a dark central breast spot.

songbird

Broad-billed Hummingbird

A desert-canyon hummingbird with a bright coral-red, black-tipped bill and a male plumage that glows blue-green from throat to breast.

hummingbird

Blood Pheasant

A high-altitude Himalayan pheasant with finely streaked gray-green plumage washed with blood-red highlights across the face, breast, and tail.

gamebird

Black-throated Magpie-Jay

A close relative of the White-throated Magpie-Jay, distinguished by a bold black throat and breast band and an even longer, more elaborate tail.

corvid

Bank Swallow

A small, plain brown-and-white swallow told from other species by a clean brown breast band across otherwise white underparts.

songbird

Azure Jay

A richly blue-bodied jay of South America's Atlantic Forest, with a black head and breast that sharply set off its azure plumage.

corvid

Andean Hillstar

A high-altitude specialist hummingbird of the Andean puna, showing a white belly and, in males, a glittering green throat above a violet breast band.

hummingbird

Scaled Dove

A small South American dove whose breast and neck feathers carry dark, crescent-shaped edges that overlap like fish scales.

dove pigeon

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

Koklass Pheasant

A grey-bodied Himalayan pheasant with a bold black-and-white head pattern, a chestnut breast patch, and a distinctive short, wedge-shaped tail.

gamebird

Dickcissel

A prairie songbird resembling a miniature meadowlark, the male Dickcissel shows a yellow breast marked with a black V-bib and a chestnut shoulder patch.

songbird

American Tree Sparrow

A hardy winter sparrow of snowy fields, recognizable by its rufous cap and the single dark spot centered on an otherwise plain gray breast.

songbird

Zebra Dove

A small Southeast Asian dove covered in bold black-and-white barring across the neck, breast, and flanks, giving it a distinctly zebra-striped look.

dove pigeon

Red-billed Pigeon

A large, dark pigeon of Texas and Central American woodlands, named for its bicolored bill and identified by its rich maroon-purple head and breast.

dove pigeon

Piping Plover

A pale, sand-colored North American plover with an often broken black breast band, closely tied to open sandy beaches and alkaline lakeshores.

shorebird

Pine Bunting

The Pine Bunting is a Siberian relative of the Yellowhammer, with breeding males showing a striking white head pattern and chestnut breast band instead of yellow tones.

songbird

Northern Rough-winged Swallow

A plain brown swallow similar to Bank Swallow but lacking a sharp breast band, instead showing a soft, diffuse brownish wash across the throat.

songbird

Ring Ouzel

A blackbird relative of upland Europe, told from the Eurasian Blackbird by its bold white crescent across the breast and pale-scaled wing feathers.

songbird

Eclectus Parrot

A parrot with extreme visual differences between the sexes: males are bright emerald green, while females are bright red with a blue-purple breast and belly.

parrot

Chipping Sparrow

The Chipping Sparrow is a small, neat sparrow recognized in breeding plumage by its bright rufous crown feathers over a clean, unstreaked gray breast.

songbird