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.
American Robin
The American Robin is a familiar thrush whose warm orange breast feathers and plain gray-brown back feathers make it one of the easiest yard birds to identify from a single dropped feather.
songbird
Rufous-backed Robin
A Mexican thrush resembling the American Robin but with a warmer rufous back and a distinctly streaked black-and-white throat.
songbird
European Robin
An iconic garden songbird with a vivid orange-red face and breast set against olive-brown upperparts, one of the most recognizable feather patterns in European gardens.
songbird
Indian Robin
A small, confiding songbird of dry open country in South Asia, glossy black or brown with a chestnut patch under the tail that flashes as it forages on the ground.
songbird
White-throated Robin
The White-throated Robin is a strikingly patterned Old World songbird, with breeding males showing slate-gray upperparts, orange underparts, and a bold white throat outlined in black.
songbird
North Island Robin
The North Island Robin is a dark, upright-perching forest bird of New Zealand's North Island, known for its tame curiosity around ground disturbance.
songbird
Oriental Magpie-Robin
A familiar garden songbird of South and Southeast Asia, glossy black and white with a long tail it habitually holds cocked upward, known for its rich, musical song.
songbird
Rufous-collared Robin
The Rufous-collared Robin is a highland thrush of Mexico and Guatemala, identified by its bright rufous-orange collar and breast band contrasting sharply against otherwise dark gray-black plumage.
songbird
Eastern Yellow Robin
The Eastern Yellow Robin is a small Australian robin with a grey back, bright yellow underparts, and an upright, alert perching posture.
songbird
American Woodcock
A round, forest-dwelling shorebird with dead-leaf camouflage plumage, an oversized bill, and unusually short, rounded wings that produce a distinctive twittering whistle in flight.
shorebird
American Redstart
An active wood-warbler that flashes bright orange or yellow patches on its wings and tail while fanning them to startle insects into flight.
songbird
American Goldfinch
The American Goldfinch is famous for males turning vivid lemon-yellow with black wings and cap in breeding season, then molting to a dull olive plumage the rest of the year.
songbird
American Flamingo
A vividly colored flamingo of the Caribbean region, showing some of the deepest pink-to-orange body plumage of any flamingo species.
wading bird
American Bittern
A secretive, superbly camouflaged heron of North American marshes that freezes with its bill pointed skyward to blend into the reeds.
wading bird
American Avocet
An elegant black-and-white wader with a distinctive upturned bill, showing a rusty cinnamon head and neck in breeding season.
shorebird
American Wigeon
A medium dabbling duck named 'baldpate' for the male's pale cream crown, which contrasts with an iridescent green face patch and a large white shoulder patch visible in flight.
waterfowl
American Oystercatcher
A large pied shorebird of American coastlines, with a black head and neck, brown rather than black back, and a long orange-red bill used to open shellfish.
shorebird
American Kestrel
The smallest and most colorful falcon in North America, a common sight perched on roadside wires, told by its rufous back and tail and, in males, contrasting blue-gray wings.
raptor
American Crow
A large, all-black corvid found nearly continent-wide, whose sturdy glossy-black feathers with a slight iridescent sheen are among the most commonly found large feathers in North America.
corvid
American White Pelican
A massive, brilliant white pelican with strikingly black flight feathers visible in flight, one of the largest birds in North America.
seabird
American Tree Sparrow
A hardy winter sparrow of snowy fields, recognizable by its rufous cap and the single dark spot centered on an otherwise plain gray breast.
songbird
American Herring Gull
The North American counterpart to the Eurasian Herring Gull, the American Herring Gull shows very similar pale gray-and-white plumage with black wingtip spots, but with subtly darker gray tones and pinkish legs.
seabird
American Golden-Plover
A striking long-distance migrant plover whose breeding plumage combines gold-and-black spangled upperparts with solid black underparts bordered by a bold white stripe.
shorebird
American Black Duck
A large, dark dabbling duck of eastern North America that resembles a female Mallard but is much darker overall, with a contrasting pale head and white underwings visible in flight.
waterfowl