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.
Great Spotted Woodpecker
The Great Spotted Woodpecker is a striking black-and-white bird with bold white wing patches, a crimson undertail, and stiff, pointed tail feathers adapted for bracing against tree trunks while excavating and drumming.
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Hairy Woodpecker
A larger look-alike of the Downy Woodpecker, distinguished by its longer bill and plain, unspotted white outer tail feathers.
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Downy Woodpecker
The smallest North American woodpecker, its black-and-white checkered feathers and short bill make it a common and easily identified backyard bird.
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Lesser Spotted Woodpecker
The Lesser Spotted Woodpecker is Europe's smallest woodpecker, its black-and-white barred back and small size distinguishing its feathers from the much larger, bolder-patched Great Spotted Woodpecker.
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Middle Spotted Woodpecker
A small, delicately patterned European woodpecker of old oak woodland, easily told from the Great Spotted Woodpecker by its unbroken red cap and streaked, rather than solidly barred, flanks.
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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.
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Pileated Woodpecker
The largest common North American woodpecker, unmistakable for its crow-like size, deep black body, flaming red crest, and bold white neck stripes.
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American Three-toed Woodpecker
The North American counterpart of the Eurasian Three-toed Woodpecker, a boreal conifer specialist with a yellow-capped male and barred black-and-white flanks.
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Black Woodpecker
The largest woodpecker across most of Europe and northern Asia, entirely black except for a red crown patch and a pale bill.
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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.
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Red-headed Woodpecker
One of the most strikingly patterned North American woodpeckers, with an entirely crimson-red head set against bold black-and-white body plumage.
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Black-backed Woodpecker
A fire-and-beetle-kill specialist of North American conifer forests, told from the Three-toed Woodpeckers by its solid, unbarred glossy black back.
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Spotted Owl
An old-growth forest specialist of western North America, dark brown overall with distinctive rounded white spotting across its plumage, dependent on structurally complex mature forest.
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Northern Flicker
A large, brown-barred woodpecker best identified by the bright yellow or salmon-red shafts of its flight feathers, along with a black chest crescent and spotted underside.
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