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.
Orange-breasted Falcon
The Orange-breasted Falcon is a powerful, rare Neotropical falcon resembling a large Bat Falcon, with a black hood, a broad orange-buff breast band, and a boldly white-barred black belly.
raptor
Blue Jay
The Blue Jay is a large, vocal corvid whose bold blue, black-barred, white-tipped wing and tail feathers are among the most instantly recognizable of any North American songbird.
corvid
Hudsonian Godwit
A long-distance migrant godwit with deep chestnut, heavily barred breeding plumage and distinctive black underwing coverts, known for undertaking one of the longest nonstop overwater flights of any shorebird.
shorebird
Black Kite
The Black Kite is a widespread Old World raptor with dull dark brown plumage, a slightly forked tail, and finely barred flight feathers, notable for its adaptability to human-altered landscapes including cities and rubbish sites.
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
Eurasian Jay
A shy woodland corvid best known for its brilliant sky-blue, black-barred wing covert feathers — among the most eye-catching and easily recognized feathers found in temperate woodland.
corvid
Peregrine Falcon
A powerful, fast-flying falcon found on nearly every continent, famous for high-speed hunting stoops and identified by its slate-gray back, bold black facial 'moustache,' and finely barred underparts.
raptor
Crowned Eagle
The Crowned Eagle is a powerful African forest eagle with rich rufous underparts boldly barred in black, a strongly banded black-and-white tail, and a small crest, all adaptations for hunting beneath a dense forest canopy.
raptor
Osprey
The Osprey is a fish-eating raptor with dark brown upperparts, a white head marked by a bold dark eye-stripe, white underparts, and long, angled wings showing a distinctive dark carpal patch and barred flight feathers.
raptor
Eurasian Sparrowhawk
The Eurasian Sparrowhawk is a small, agile woodland raptor with short, rounded wings and a long barred tail suited to fast pursuit through trees, showing fine barring on the underparts that differs between the smaller male and larger female.
raptor
Great Curassow
A large, turkey-sized forest bird, with males glossy black and white below and topped by a curly crest and bright yellow bill knob. Females occur in several distinct color morphs, ranging from barred to rufous to blackish.
gamebird
Bar-tailed Godwit
A high-Arctic-breeding godwit renowned for extraordinary nonstop transoceanic migratory flights, showing a finely barred tail and rich brick-red breeding underparts quite different from the bold black tail of the related Black-tailed Godwit.
shorebird
Baird's Sandpiper
A long-winged, buff-toned sandpiper whose folded wingtips extend noticeably past the tail, giving it an elongated, tapered silhouette.
shorebird
Maned Goose
A stocky, pale grey Australian goose with a small dark bill and mostly terrestrial habits, grazing on grasslands near the coast.
waterfowl
Little Corella
A predominantly white cockatoo of Australian open country, the Little Corella has a short, low crest and a faint pinkish tinge at the base of its head feathers, visible only when raised.
parrot
Little Crow
The smallest of Australia's crow species, adapted to arid interior habitats and often seen in nomadic flocks.
corvid
Loggerhead Shrike
A compact gray predator songbird with a black bandit mask and a hooked bill, known for impaling prey on thorns and barbed wire.
songbird
Prairie Warbler
A small yellow wood-warbler with chestnut streaks on the back and bold facial markings, common in shrubby old fields and pine barrens, often seen bobbing its tail.
songbird
Sword-billed Hummingbird
A remarkable Andean hummingbird whose straight bill is longer than its own body, an adaptation for feeding on especially long, tubular flowers.
hummingbird
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
Dusky-headed Conure
A slender green Amazonian parakeet distinguished by its dusky grey-brown head and pale bare eye-ring.
parrot
White Woodpecker
An unusually pale South American woodpecker, mostly white with contrasting black wings and back and a patch of bare yellow facial skin.
woodpecker
King Vulture
A striking tropical vulture with mostly creamy white plumage, jet-black flight and tail feathers, and a vividly multicolored bare head.
raptor
Lilac-breasted Roller
One of Africa's most colorful birds, with a lilac breast, turquoise belly, and long tail streamers, often perched conspicuously on bare branches.
other