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.
Western Tanager
A colorful western North American forest songbird, the breeding male Western Tanager combines a yellow body and black wings with a striking orange-red wash across the head.
songbird
Umbrella Cockatoo
An entirely white cockatoo with a large, broad crest that opens into a dramatic fan or umbrella shape when raised.
parrot
Western Sandpiper
A tiny sandpiper with black legs and a long, slightly drooped bill, showing rufous highlights on the crown and scapulars in breeding plumage.
shorebird
Twite
A streaky brown Eurasian finch of moorland and coastal grassland, similar to the Linnet but lacking red on the breast.
songbird
Western Reef Heron
A coastal heron of Africa and Asia closely related to the Little Egret, occurring in both dark and white color forms.
wading bird
Turquoise-browed Motmot
This Central American motmot is best known for its bright turquoise eyebrow stripe and long tail ending in bare-shafted rackets that it swings like a pendulum.
other
Western Capercaillie
The largest grouse species, with males showing a dark, heavy build, an iridescent green breast sheen, and an impressively broad fan-shaped tail during display.
gamebird
Tufted Titmouse
The Tufted Titmouse is a common eastern woodland bird known for its jaunty gray crest feathers and soft, plain-gray body feathers washed with rust along the flanks.
songbird
Welcome Swallow
The Welcome Swallow is a small, agile aerial insectivore with glossy blue-black upperparts, a rufous face, and a deeply forked tail, common over open country and towns.
songbird
Trumpeter Finch
A pale, sandy desert finch with a thick reddish bill and a soft pink flush on the breast and rump of breeding males.
songbird
Weka
The Weka is a robust, flightless New Zealand rail with streaked brown plumage, known for its bold, inquisitive, and often opportunistic behaviour around people.
wading bird
Tropical Mockingbird
A familiar gray songbird of Central and South American open country and gardens, known for its long tail, white wing flashes, and varied vocal repertoire.
songbird
Wandering Tattler
A uniformly slate-gray shorebird of rocky Pacific coastlines, lacking any wing pattern and constantly bobbing as it forages among tide pools.
shorebird
Tropical Parula
A tiny blue-gray and yellow warbler of the far southern U.S. and Latin America, easily told from its northern cousin by its unbroken olive back patch and lack of white eye crescents.
songbird
Violet-green Swallow
A small western swallow with iridescent green upperparts, violet-tinged rump and wings, and white extending unusually high onto the face and flanks.
songbird
Tropical Kingbird
A common and widespread tyrant flycatcher recognized by its pale gray head and throat fading into lemon-yellow underparts, paired with a notched, dark tail. It favors open habitats with scattered perches from which it sallies for insects.
songbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
A clean-looking desert hummingbird with brilliant white underparts and a violet-blue crown that catches the light against otherwise subdued upperparts.
hummingbird
Tree Swallow
A cavity-nesting swallow whose upperpart feathers shine in iridescent blue-green while the underparts remain pure white, giving a sharply two-toned appearance.
songbird
Vinaceous Rosefinch
A richly colored rosefinch whose male shows deep wine-pink to rosy-red plumage across the head and underparts, typical of high-elevation forest.
songbird
Townsend's Solitaire
A slender, uniformly gray thrush relative of western mountains, identified by its bold white eye-ring, long tail, and buffy wing patch visible in flight.
songbird
Vesper Sparrow
A streaky grassland sparrow best identified by white outer tail feathers and a small chestnut shoulder patch.
songbird
Torresian Crow
A widespread crow of northern Australia and New Guinea, larger and more heavily built than the closely related Little Crow.
corvid
Verreaux's Eagle-Owl
Africa's largest owl, a pale gray giant of savanna and riverine woodland, instantly recognizable in life by its bare pink eyelids, with correspondingly oversized, finely patterned feathers.
owl
Torrent Duck
A slender, streamlined duck specialized for life in swift Andean rivers, with males showing bold black-and-white stripes and females a warm rufous-orange breast. Its stiff, pointed tail helps it brace against rocks in fast current.
waterfowl
Verreaux's Eagle
Verreaux's Eagle, also called the Black Eagle, is a striking African mountain eagle almost entirely glossy black except for a white back patch and pale flight-feather 'windows.' Its long, broad wings and tail are shaped for soaring along cliffs and escarpments.
raptor
Topknot Pigeon
Australia's largest fruit-eating pigeon, instantly recognizable by its unusual double crest-a grey forward-curling tuft paired with a rufous-chestnut crest behind it.
dove pigeon
Vermilion Flycatcher
A small flycatcher in which males show a strikingly brilliant red crown and underparts against dusky brown wings, while females are far more subdued.
songbird
Thick-billed Siskin
A high-Andean finch notable for its unusually stout, heavy bill relative to other siskins, paired with a black head and yellow-olive body.
songbird
Vermilion Cardinal
A cardinal of the dry Caribbean coast of Colombia and Venezuela, with males cloaked almost entirely in brilliant red plumage and a prominent crest.
songbird
Verdin
The Verdin is a tiny desert songbird with a bright yellow head and throat set against gray body plumage, known for building large, conspicuous domed nests in thorny desert shrubs.
songbird
Tennessee Warbler
A plainly patterned warbler with a gray head, white eyebrow stripe, and whitish underparts, notable for its unmarked, wing-bar-free appearance and boreal breeding range.
songbird
Vaux's Swift
A tiny cigar-shaped swift of western forests that spends nearly its entire life on the wing, only clinging to vertical surfaces like hollow tree trunks to roost or nest.
other
Temminck's Stint
A small, plain-plumaged stint that favors quiet freshwater edges over open mudflats, distinguished from its rufous relatives by generally duller upperpart feathers and distinctive white outer tail feathers.
shorebird
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
Ultramarine Grosbeak
A South American forest-edge songbird, the male Ultramarine Grosbeak is deep blue overall with a notably stout, silvery bill.
songbird
Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise
The Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise is named for the dozen thin, curled wire-like filaments trailing from the male's bright yellow flank plumes, used to brush against a female's face during courtship. It inhabits lowland swamp forest across New Guinea and nearby islands.
songbird
Tamaulipas Crow
One of the smallest North American crows, native to northeastern Mexico with a small range extending into southern Texas.
corvid
Turquoise Parrot
The Turquoise Parrot is a small, brightly colored Australian parrot with a turquoise face and wing edge, a yellow belly, and a chestnut patch on the wing in males.
parrot
Takahe
The Takahe is a large, flightless New Zealand rail with deep blue-green plumage and a massive red bill, once thought extinct before being rediscovered in remote alpine country.
wading bird
Turkey Vulture
A widespread scavenger known for its two-toned wings, silvery flight feathers set against a dark body, and its habit of soaring in a shallow V with a distinctive teetering flight.
raptor
Taiwan Blue Magpie
Taiwan's national bird, a richly blue-bodied corvid with a black head, red bill, and an exceptionally long tail tipped in white.
corvid
Tundra Swan
A large all-white swan of the Arctic tundra, smaller and more compact than the Trumpeter Swan, often showing a small yellow spot at the base of the bill.
waterfowl
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
Tufted Puffin
The largest of the puffins, distinguished from its black-and-white relatives by an almost entirely dark body plumage set off by long, pale yellow head plumes in breeding adults.
seabird
Syrian Woodpecker
A close look-alike of the Great Spotted Woodpecker found across southeastern Europe and the Middle East, best separated by an incomplete black neck bar and a paler pink vent.
woodpecker
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
Swinhoe's Pheasant
A pheasant endemic to Taiwan's mountain forests, showing glossy dark blue-black plumage broken by a striking white band across the back and a bright red face.
gamebird
Trumpeter Swan
The heaviest native North American bird and largest swan, entirely white with a solid black bill, sometimes showing a rust-stained head from iron-rich feeding grounds.
waterfowl