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.
White-faced Heron
The most widespread heron in Australia and New Zealand, easily recognized by its soft blue-grey plumage set off by a clean white face.
wading bird
Bourke's Parrot
Bourke's Parrot is a small Australian parrot with unusually soft, muted coloring for a parrot, combining brown-grey upperparts with a pink-washed underside and blue wing highlights.
parrot
Scarlet-chested Parrot
A tiny, jewel-toned Australian grass parrot named for the male's bright scarlet chest patch.
parrot
Pheasant Pigeon
The Pheasant Pigeon is a shy, ground-dwelling New Guinea pigeon named for its long, pheasant-like tail and glossy, dark iridescent body.
dove pigeon
Snowy Plover
A very small, pale plover of sandy Pacific and Gulf coast beaches and interior alkaline flats, with dark neck patches rather than a full breast band.
shorebird
Tacazze Sunbird
A large highland sunbird of East Africa with elongated central tail feathers and male plumage that gleams deep purple and green in good light.
songbird
Silver Pheasant
A striking forest pheasant of Southeast Asia, with males showing crisp white upperparts finely marked with black lines contrasting against glossy blue-black underparts.
gamebird
Western Meadowlark
A grassland songbird nearly identical to the Eastern Meadowlark, with pale mottled upperparts, a yellow breast marked by a black V, and a rich, gurgling flute-like song.
songbird
Egyptian Vulture
The smallest and most lightly built Old World vulture, with creamy-white body feathers, black flight feathers, and a distinctive wedge-shaped tail.
raptor
Cockatiel
A slender, crested Australian parrot with soft grey plumage, a bold white wing patch, and, in males, a yellow face marked by a bright orange cheek spot.
parrot
Emu
Australia's largest bird, the Emu has loose, hair-like feathers that grow in pairs from a single shaft, giving its plumage a shaggy, fur-like texture unlike any flying bird.
other
Brown Bullfinch
A drab, olive-brown bullfinch of Asian hill forests that lacks the bright colors of its relatives, identified mainly by its stubby bill and subtle wing bar.
songbird
Superb Lyrebird
One of the largest songbirds, the male Superb Lyrebird carries an extraordinary lyre-shaped tail with lace-like filamentous feathers, displayed during elaborate courtship performances.
songbird
Plain Mountain Finch
A plainly plumaged high-altitude finch of the Himalayas and Central Asia, relying on streaky brown camouflage rather than bright color.
songbird
Green-tailed Sunbird
A Himalayan and Southeast Asian montane sunbird with a scarlet throat and back, a metallic green crown, and long green central tail streamers.
songbird
Fearful Owl
The Fearful Owl is a large, poorly known owl endemic to a few islands in the Solomon Islands, with rich brown, mottled plumage and a rounded, tuftless head.
owl
Bearded Woodpecker
A large, robust African woodpecker named for its bold black 'beard' stripe bordering a white throat, favoring broadleaved woodland such as miombo and mopane.
woodpecker
Snow Bunting
The Snow Bunting is a hardy Arctic songbird whose breeding males become strikingly white and black, while winter birds show warmer buff-brown tones as they flock over open fields and shorelines farther south.
songbird
Gull-billed Tern
A stocky, pale tern known for its short, thick, gull-like black bill rather than the slender dagger bill typical of most terns.
seabird
Far Eastern Curlew
The largest curlew species in the world, the Far Eastern Curlew is a dark, heavily streaked shorebird with an exceptionally long bill, dependent on East Asian-Australasian tidal mudflats for its migration.
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
Black-collared Hawk
A striking rufous-orange wetland hawk of the Neotropics, immediately recognizable by its pale creamy head and the narrow black band crossing its upper chest.
raptor
Silver Gull
A common and adaptable Australian gull with white plumage, pale grey wings, and black wingtips marked with white spots.
seabird
Tui
The Tui is a New Zealand honeyeater whose plumage looks black at a distance but shimmers with iridescent green, blue, and bronze up close, set off by two curled white throat tufts.
songbird