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.
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
Red Kite
A rufous, forked-tailed raptor of Europe whose long, angular wings and deeply forked tail feathers are among the most recognizable silhouettes in the sky.
raptor
Mississippi Kite
The Mississippi Kite is a small, elegant grey kite with a pale head, darker grey back and wings, a solid black tail, and long pointed wings, often seen catching flying insects on the wing over open groves and parks.
raptor
Yellow-billed Kite
A widespread African kite closely related to the Black Kite, distinguished by its bright yellow bill and dark brown plumage, common around towns, wetlands, and open savanna.
raptor
Whistling Kite
A common, pale kite of Australia and New Guinea best known for its far-carrying whistled call, with buff-brown body feathers contrasting against darker flight feathers in flight.
raptor
Snail Kite
A marsh-dwelling raptor with a thin, deeply curved bill for extracting apple snails, and feathers ranging from slaty gray in males to warm streaked brown in females and young birds.
raptor
Brahminy Kite
A handsome coastal raptor with a crisp white head and breast set against warm chestnut wings and body, common along tropical shorelines of Asia and Australia.
raptor
Black-winged Kite
The Old World counterpart of the White-tailed Kite, a small pale gray-and-white raptor with a black shoulder patch and striking red eyes.
raptor
Swallow-tailed Kite
A graceful, boldly two-toned raptor with a deeply forked tail, whose sharp black-and-white feathers are unlike almost any other North American bird of prey.
raptor
White-tailed Kite
A pale, falcon-shaped kite known for hovering over open fields, with soft gray-and-white feathers and a distinctive black shoulder patch.
raptor
Black-billed Magpie
A boldly patterned black-and-white corvid of the American West, instantly recognizable by its long, iridescent tail and noisy, sociable habits.
corvid
European Stonechat
The European Stonechat is a small, compact songbird whose breeding males show a jet-black head and orange-chestnut breast set off by white neck patches, against a mottled brown back.
songbird
European Shag
A slender, all-dark cormorant relative with an iridescent green-black sheen and a distinctive forward-curling crest during the breeding season.
seabird
European Goldfinch
A strikingly patterned finch with a red face, black-and-white head markings, warm buff-brown body, and a vivid golden-yellow wing bar crossing otherwise black wings.
songbird
Jardine's Parrot
Jardine's Parrot is a stocky African forest parrot whose green feathers are neatly edged in black, giving a scaled texture, accented by orange-red patches on the head and shoulders.
parrot
European Storm-Petrel
One of the smallest seabirds in the world, sooty black overall with a white rump patch, fluttering like a large bat low over the waves.
seabird
Regent Parrot
The Regent Parrot is a slender, long-tailed Australian parrot in which males are largely bright yellow with bold red and black wing markings, while females are a much duller olive-green.
parrot
Knob-billed Duck
A large, glossy black-and-white duck of tropical wetlands, best known for the fleshy black knob or comb that swells atop the breeding male's bill.
waterfowl
Large-billed Crow
A robust, all-black crow found widely across Asia, notable for its deep, arched bill and steep forehead.
corvid
Yellow-billed Magpie
A California endemic magpie nearly identical to its black-billed relative in plumage, but distinguished by a bright yellow bill and yellow skin patch around the eye.
corvid
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
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
Red-billed Chough
An all-black cliff-dwelling corvid with a long curved red bill and red legs, known for its acrobatic flight over coastal and mountain terrain.
corvid
Red-billed Quelea
A small African weaver famous for forming the largest flocks of any wild bird, with breeding males sporting a bold black or white facial mask and a bright red bill.
songbird