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.
Barn Owl
An elegant, heart-faced owl whose golden, finely speckled upperparts and ghostly pale underside make its feathers instantly distinctive among owls.
owl
Australian Raven
A large, widespread Australian raven known for long, shaggy throat hackle feathers and a distinctive mournful, drawn-out call.
corvid
Great Egret
A tall, all-white heron with a long yellow bill and black legs, famous for the delicate plumes it grows during the breeding season.
wading bird
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 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
Twite
A streaky brown Eurasian finch of moorland and coastal grassland, similar to the Linnet but lacking red on the breast.
songbird
Red-throated Wryneck
The African counterpart to the Eurasian Wryneck, distinguished by its warm rufous throat patch set against the same cryptic, bark-like plumage.
woodpecker
Red-backed Shrike
A small Eurasian shrike with strongly different male and female plumages, the male showing a gray head, chestnut back, and black bandit mask.
songbird
American Three-toed Woodpecker
The North American counterpart of the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, a boreal conifer specialist with a yellow-capped male and barred black-and-white flanks.
woodpecker
Northern Lapwing
A distinctive Eurasian plover with iridescent green-black upperparts, a long wispy black crest, and broad, rounded wings that give it a floppy, butterfly-like flight.
shorebird
Little Gull
The smallest gull in the world, a delicate Eurasian species with rounded wings, a buoyant tern-like flight, and strikingly dark underwings that flash as it wheels over the water.
seabird
Little Bunting
The Little Bunting is a small, compact Eurasian bunting with a rufous-chestnut face bordered by dark stripes, breeding across the boreal taiga and wintering in southern Asia.
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
Oriental Magpie
An East Asian magpie closely related to the Eurasian Magpie, recognized by its glossy black-and-white pattern and a somewhat shorter tail than its western relatives.
corvid
Whooper Swan
A large Eurasian swan, entirely white with a straighter neck carriage than Mute Swan, known for its loud bugling call given in flight and on the water.
waterfowl
Iberian Green Woodpecker
The Iberian Peninsula's counterpart to the Eurasian Green Woodpecker, recently recognized as its own species, sharing the same green plumage and strongly ground-feeding habits.
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
Yellow-breasted Bunting
The Yellow-breasted Bunting is a strikingly colored Eurasian songbird, once abundant but now critically endangered due to unsustainable historical trapping pressure along its migratory routes.
songbird
Tufted Duck
The Tufted Duck is a strikingly patterned Eurasian diving duck, easily recognized by the male's drooping head tuft and sharp contrast between black upperparts and white flanks.
waterfowl
Bean Goose
A dark, orange-legged gray goose of Eurasian taiga and tundra, uniformly brown without the pale head-body contrast or bright bill color of related species.
waterfowl
Saker Falcon
The Saker Falcon is a large, powerfully built falcon of the Eurasian steppes, prized historically in falconry, with pale sandy-brown plumage and long tapered wings suited to open-country pursuit.
raptor
Ural Owl
A large, pale grey-brown owl of Eurasian forests, known for its notably long tail and streaked (rather than barred) plumage, and for its fierce defense of nests.
owl
Sunda Collared Dove
A Southeast Asian island dove closely resembling the familiar Eurasian Collared Dove, but slightly smaller and darker, with the same black-and-white half-collar across the back of the neck.
dove pigeon