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.
California Scrub-Jay
A crestless, blue-and-gray jay of California's oak woodlands and gardens, showing a blue necklace across a whitish throat and gray-brown back.
corvid
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
Woodhouse's Scrub-Jay
The interior counterpart to the California Scrub-Jay, this crestless jay of pinyon-juniper and interior scrub country shows a slightly duller blue and a less crisply defined breast band.
corvid
Florida Scrub-Jay
A blue-and-grey jay found only in Florida's fire-maintained scrub oak habitat, lacking a crest and closely tied to a single, shrinking ecosystem.
corvidIsland Scrub-Jay
A large, deeply colored scrub-jay found only on Santa Cruz Island off the California coast, notable for its bigger size and richer blue plumage than mainland relatives.
corvid
Mexican Jay
A blue-and-grey jay of oak and pine-oak canyons in the southwestern US and Mexico, distinguished from similar scrub-jays by its plain grey underparts without a breast band.
corvid
California Condor
One of the largest flying birds in the world, with enormous black flight feathers and bold white underwing patches, and a critically endangered population sustained by intensive conservation efforts.
raptor
California Towhee
The California Towhee is a large, plain brown sparrow relative common in West Coast gardens and chaparral, best known for its rufous undertail and persistent chip calls.
songbird
California Thrasher
The largest North American thrasher, a dark chocolate-brown bird of California chaparral with a long, strongly curved bill adapted for digging through leaf litter.
songbird
California Quail
A familiar western quail known for the male's forward-drooping black head plume and scaled gray-brown body feathers, common in chaparral and suburban gardens alike.
gamebird
California Gull
A medium-large gull of the American West, the California Gull shows medium gray back feathers and dark eyes, and is notable historically for its role in protecting early Utah crops from insect swarms.
seabird
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
Lawrence's Goldfinch
A small California and Baja California finch, gray-bodied with a black face on males and bright yellow wing and rump patches.
songbird
Oak Titmouse
The Oak Titmouse is a plain, uniformly grayish-brown California relative of the Tufted Titmouse whose lack of bold markings is itself a key identification clue.
songbird
Nuttall's Woodpecker
A small woodpecker largely restricted to California oak woodlands, similar to Ladder-backed Woodpecker but with cleaner white underparts and a solid black nape band.
woodpecker
Bell's Sparrow
A dark-headed sparrow of California scrublands, with a bold facial pattern and plainer back than its close relative, the Sagebrush Sparrow.
songbird
Gambel's Quail
A desert-dwelling quail of the southwestern United States, closely related to the California Quail but distinguished by a chestnut crown patch and a black belly patch on males.
gamebird