Useful Resources for Feather Identification

UPDATE: An updated version is available on the Found Feathers blog's Resources page.

One of the most important parts of suggesting IDs is providing support/reasoning for your ideas, or at least being prepared to defend or reconsider your original thoughts. In the case of feathers, this can mean attaching a link to an image of matching feathers. There are many online resources, more than you might expect, each with their own regional focuses and organization style. Besides being useful for lending credence to IDs, exploring them can help you further your understanding of the similarities and differences between species, the appearances of the feathers of common species, and feather types/placements. Below is a list of three of the online resources I have found to be particularly useful.

• The Feather Atlas: Almost exclusively US-based. Maintained by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Features the flight feathers(only wing and tail) of over 380 US species. Feathers are set against a scaled grid for easy measurement. Only a few individuals illustrated per species. Link: https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/
• Featherbase: Germany/Europe-based but contains species from around the world. The types of feathers illustrated for each species varies widely, but generally both body, covert, and flight feathers are shown. Many individuals of a single species are provided, allowing you to see variations due to age and sex. Currently contains over 1100 species from around the world. (I'm actually a contributor, hooray!) Link: https://www.featherbase.info/en/home
• Slater Wing and Tail Collection: US-based but contains some worldwide species. Maintained by the University of Puget Sound in WA. Complete wings and tails with both front and back side shown. Multiple examples for many species. Link: http://digitalcollections.pugetsound.edu/cdm/landingpage/collection/slaterwing

Some others that I use less frequently:

https://www.federn.org/federn_en.html

http://www.ornithos.de/

http://www.vogelfedern.de/index-e.htm

https://www.alulawebsite.com/

https://www.fws.gov/lab/idnotes/_pheasantfeathers_final.pdf

https://gf.nd.gov/plots/guide/upland-game-identification

https://www.skullsite.com/

I have a few more, but these three are the ones I use most often. Feel free to message me @featherenthusiast for a full list of all the resources I know of.

Hope you all find this helpful!

• Amanda

Posted on October 10, 2018 01:18 AM by featherenthusiast