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.
Redwing
The smallest widespread European thrush, easily told from its relatives by streaked (rather than spotted) underparts and bright reddish-orange flank and underwing feathers.
songbird
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
Red Warbler
The Red Warbler is a Mexican highland endemic whose entirely bright red plumage, broken only by a silvery cheek patch, makes it one of the most unmistakable warblers in the world.
songbird
Pied Oystercatcher
A bold black-and-white shorebird with a long orange-red bill, found probing sandy beaches and mudflats along the Australian coast.
shorebird
Reddish Egret
A distinctive coastal heron known for its shaggy, reddish head and neck plumage and its animated, dancing foraging behavior.
wading bird
Pied Falconet
A strikingly pied falconet with clean black-and-white plumage and no rufous coloring at all, found across southern China and northern Southeast Asia.
raptor
Red-whiskered Bulbul
A crested songbird with brown upperparts, white underparts, and a bold red patch behind the eye, widely known for its cheerful, whistling calls.
songbird
Pigeon Guillemot
The North Pacific counterpart of the Black Guillemot, similarly sooty black with a white wing patch, but with the patch typically crossed by a dark wedge or bar.
seabird
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
Pied Wagtail
The Pied Wagtail is a slender black-and-white songbird best known for its constantly pumping tail, with crisp black-and-white feathering that gives it a strongly contrasting, checkered appearance.
songbird
Red Spurfowl
An Indian forest gamebird cloaked in rich chestnut-red plumage, named for the multiple leg spurs males carry rather than the single spur of most gamebirds.
gamebird
Pomarine Jaeger
The largest and bulkiest of the jaegers, recognized in breeding adults by broad, spoon-twisted central tail feathers and heavily barred underwing coverts.
seabird
Red-shouldered Hawk
The Red-shouldered Hawk is a woodland buteo with rufous-barred underparts, reddish shoulder patches, a boldly black-and-white banded tail, and a translucent pale crescent near the wingtip visible in flight.
raptor
Plumed Guineafowl
A dark rainforest guineafowl finely speckled with white spots, identified by its forward-curling black crest plume and patch of bare blue facial skin.
gamebird
Red-shouldered Macaw
One of the smallest macaws, a compact green parrot of northern South America with a red patch at the bend of the wing and a subtle blue wash on the crown.
parrot
Plumbeous Vireo
The Plumbeous Vireo is a uniformly gray vireo of western pine and pinyon-juniper woodlands, lacking the olive-green tones seen in its eastern relative.
songbird
Red-rumped Parrot
The Red-rumped Parrot is a grassland parrot of southeastern Australia in which males are bright green with a red rump patch, while females are a much duller olive.
parrot
Prothonotary Warbler
A vivid golden-yellow warbler of wooded swamps and flooded bottomland forest, one of the few warbler species that nests in tree cavities.
songbird
Red-necked Falcon
A striking small falcon with a bright chestnut crown and nape contrasting against a slate-grey back, favoring open country dotted with palms across Africa and South Asia.
raptor
Powerful Woodpecker
A large woodpecker of Andean cloud forest, closely related to the Crimson-crested and Magellanic Woodpeckers but with distinctive buffy, barred underparts rather than clean black-and-white.
woodpecker
White-eared Bulbul
A dry-country bulbul with a black head, distinctive white ear patch, and bright yellow undertail, common around gardens and arid scrub.
songbird
Prairie Falcon
A pale falcon of arid western North America, best identified in flight by a distinctive dark patch on the underwing near the body, set against otherwise pale sandy-brown plumage.
raptor
White-crowned Sparrow
The White-crowned Sparrow is a clean, handsome sparrow with a bold black-and-white striped crown set above a plain, unstreaked gray face and breast.
songbird
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
White-capped Pionus
A small, stocky parrot marked by a bright white patch on the forehead against otherwise green plumage.
parrot
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
White-bellied Woodpecker
One of Asia's largest woodpeckers, this glossy black bird is named for the flash of white on its lower belly, which sets it apart from its all-dark relatives.
woodpecker
Pink Pigeon
A pale pink-headed pigeon found only on Mauritius, its soft blush-colored head and underparts contrasting with warm rufous-brown wings and a long graduated tail.
dove pigeon
White-backed Woodpecker
A large, heavily barred woodpecker of old-growth forest, distinguished from the similar Great Spotted Woodpecker by its finely barred (rather than solid white) back and extensive pink-red vent.
woodpecker
Pink-necked Green Pigeon
The Pink-necked Green Pigeon is a common Southeast Asian pigeon whose males show a soft pink throat and orange breast patch set against green plumage.
dove pigeon
White-backed Vulture
A widespread African savanna vulture, mostly brown overall but showing a distinctive whitish patch on the lower back that is especially visible in flight.
raptor
Pine Siskin
The Pine Siskin is a small, heavily streaked finch whose brown feathers show flashes of yellow in the wings and tail, and whose winter range shifts unpredictably year to year.
songbird
Whiskered Tern
A compact marsh tern that turns a striking dark slate-gray across the body in breeding plumage, with a crisp white stripe dividing the black cap from the gray cheek.
seabird
Pinyon Jay
A uniformly blue, short-tailed, crestless jay of the western pinyon-juniper woodlands, famous for its large nomadic flocks and close relationship with pine seeds.
corvid
Whiskered Screech-Owl
A small screech-owl of montane oak and pine-oak woodlands from the southwestern United States into Central America, nearly identical in plumage to its relatives but distinguished chiefly by its distinctive irregular call.
owl
Pink-footed Goose
A compact gray goose with a notably darker head and neck than its body, a short pink-banded bill, and pink legs, breeding in the far North Atlantic and wintering on European farmland.
waterfowl
Western Scrub-Jay
A crestless blue-and-gray jay of western oak woodland and scrubby habitat, easily told from crested jays by its plain head and blue "necklace" across the breast.
corvid
Rainbow Bee-eater
Australia's only bee-eater, a multicolored bird combining green, gold, and turquoise plumage with a fine black tail streamer.
other
Western Screech-Owl
A small owl of western North America, closely resembling the Eastern Screech-Owl but occurring predominantly in a grey-brown morph, with finely patterned plumage suited to camouflage against bark.
owl
Pyrrhuloxia
A desert relative of the Northern Cardinal, the Pyrrhuloxia is soft gray overall with splashes of red on the crest, face, and underparts, plus a distinctive stubby yellow bill.
songbird
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
Purple-throated Carib
A Lesser Antillean hummingbird whose deep green body sets off a brilliant magenta-purple throat patch that can look nearly black until it catches direct light.
hummingbird
Western Marsh Harrier
The Western Marsh Harrier is the largest and darkest of the Eurasian harriers, males showing a distinctive tricolor pattern of grey, brown, and black on the wings and tail, while females and juveniles are largely dark chocolate-brown with a pale creamy crown.
raptor
Purple Martin
The largest North American swallow, with males showing an all-over glossy blue-black sheen and females a duller gray-brown, pale-bellied pattern.
songbird
Western Kingbird
A pale gray-headed flycatcher with a yellow belly, often seen perched on wires in open country, told by white edges on its blackish tail.
songbird
Purple-rumped Sunbird
A small, brightly patterned South Asian sunbird recognized by its maroon back, glittering purple rump patch, and yellow underparts.
songbird
Western Jackdaw
The smallest of the common European corvids, recognized by its glossy black plumage set off by a silvery-grey neck patch and a pale, staring eye.
corvid
Purple Heron
A slim, secretive relative of the Grey Heron with rich chestnut neck feathering and a habit of hiding among tall reeds.
wading bird