Drawn
The comparison plates: features that separate similar birds, drawn Every diagram on the site, in one place. Activating a numbered pin highlights the same feature on both birds at once: the comparison the reader actually needs, rather than two pictures side by side.
Common Buzzard against Red-tailed Hawk The underwing and the tail, enlarged, and which of the two holds up on a juvenile.
Underwing, from below Common Buzzard Red-tailed Hawk Tail, from below barred + broad band plain + one band 1 2 3 4 1 Patagial bar — a dark bar along the leading edge of the inner wing, between body and wrist. Red-tailed Hawk has it at all ages; Common Buzzard does not. The single most useful feature in the pair. 2 Carpal patch — a dark comma at the wrist against a paler underwing, typical of Common Buzzard. Present on many birds but not all, so it supports a call rather than making one. 3 Barring across the whole tail — Common Buzzard: narrow bars the full length, then a broader dark band at the tip. It is the barring above the band that identifies it, not the band. 4 One band on a plain tail — adult Red-tailed Hawk: unbarred above a single narrow subterminal band. Juveniles have brown barred tails and lose this feature entirely. Feature diagrams, not portraits — each shows where a feature sits and what it does, at the level of detail the text supports. Read the page this belongs to →
Four speculums The wing panel on a Mallard and on the birds it crosses with, side by side.
Speculum, right wing, panel and borders Mallard — white above and below Gadwall — white panel, no blue Pintail — buff above, white below A cross — borders part-way between 1 2 3 4
1 Mallard — blue-purple panel with a clean white bar above AND below it. The white on both sides is the part to fix in memory. 2 Gadwall — a white panel, with chestnut and black in front of it. No blue at all, which makes it the easiest of the four. 3 Pintail — bronzy green, with a buff bar above and a white trailing edge below. The borders differ from each other, unlike Mallard. 4 A cross — an intermediate. A cross between two of these tends to show a blended panel with borders part-way between its parents, rather than a random combination. The speculum shown as an isolated band — a panel with a border above and below. Colours are indicative, not matched to a specimen. Read the page this belongs to →
Mediterranean Gull against Black-headed Gull The outer wing: where the white is, where the black is, and what a first-winter lacks.
Outer wing, from above Black-headed Gull — white wedge Mediterranean Gull, 1st winter — no wedge 1 2 3 1 The white wedge — a clean white flash along the leading edge of the outer primaries. Black-headed Gull shows it at every age, from juvenile onwards. Mediterranean Gull never does. If it is there, the identification is settled. 2 Dark trailing edge — Black-headed Gull carries dark along the back edge of the outer wing, below the white. The contrast between the two is what makes the wedge so visible in flight. 3 Even dark tip — first-winter Mediterranean Gull has dark on the outer wing with no white leading edge cutting through it. Darker overall, and uninterrupted. Outer wing from above, schematic. The wedge is a shape rather than a shade, which is why it survives distance and poor light. Read the page this belongs to →
A drake's year Breeding plumage, eclipse, and the flightless weeks marked out across the calendar.
A drake’s year J F M A M J J A S O N D Upper: plumage · lower: able to fly 1 2 3 4
1 Breeding plumage — the drake as everyone pictures him. Present for most of the year, which is exactly why the few weeks without it are so disorientating. 2 Eclipse — the drake in the duck’s colours, roughly late June into August. Bill and leg colour do not change and carry the identification through it. 3 Flightless — three to four weeks inside the eclipse period when the flight feathers have gone together and the bird cannot fly at all. This is the reason the plumage change exists. 4 Moulting back — September and October, when a flock shows every state at once. Older males regain colour first, so none of the birds is in the “wrong” plumage. Indicative timing for a British Mallard. Species and seasons vary; the sequence does not. Read the page this belongs to →
Why these are drawn and not photographed
A photograph shows one bird on one day in one light. A diagram can show the feature on its
own, at the size it needs to be seen at, with the same feature marked on both subjects, and
it makes no claim to be a bird, so it can be checked against a real source line by line.
Nothing on this site that carries a diagnostic feature is generated; the photographs are of
real birds and the diagrams are drawn by hand.
That is not only a rule about provenance. Drawing a feature forces a decision about it,
which is why the discipline is worth something here at all, and it is the argument a
handbook on drawing and painting wildlife
makes from the other side: get the structure wrong and no amount of finish will rescue the
picture.