ClipArt ETC
This Old World bird's plumage is gray or brown. They have a long tail, strong legs, and a slim body.

Common Cuckoo

This Old World bird's plumage is gray or brown. They have a long tail, strong legs, and a slim body.

"Corvus monedul. Jackdaw. The species throughout uniform lustrous black, including the bill and feet; nasal bristles about half as long as the bill, which exhibits the typical cultrirostral style. Nostrils large, but entirely concealed. Wings much longer than tail, folding about to its end. Several outer primaries sinuate-attenuate on inner webs. Tail rounded, with broad feathers, sinuate-truncate at ends, with mucronate shafts. Feet stout; tarsus more or less nearly equal to middle toe and claw, roughly scutellate in front, laminar behind, with a set of small plates between." Elliot Coues, 1884

jackdaw

"Corvus monedul. Jackdaw. The species throughout uniform lustrous black, including the bill and feet;…

Alcedo Ispida. European Kingfisher. Small bird, upper parts blue-green; under parts orange; rump and back azure-blue head large; rufous patch on ear; stripe on neck blue-green; bill long and black with some red at base; short tail.

Common Kingfisher

Alcedo Ispida. European Kingfisher. Small bird, upper parts blue-green; under parts orange; rump and…

"The Golden Oriole, Oriolus galbula, which breeds exceptionally in England, is orange-yellow, with black lores and mainly black wings and tail. The bill is crimson, pinkish, or bluish." A. H. Evans, 1900

Golden Oriole

"The Golden Oriole, Oriolus galbula, which breeds exceptionally in England, is orange-yellow, with black…

"Surnia funerea. American Hawk Owl. Day Owl. Bill and eyes yellow; claws brownish-black. Upper parts bistre-brown, darkest and almost blackish on the head, where profusely spotted with small round white mark, to which succeeds a nuchal interval less spotted or free from spots, then an area of larger and lengthened spots; scapulars profusely spotted with white in large pattern, forming a scapular bar as in Scops; back and wing-coverts more or less spotted with white also; primaries and secondaries with with white spots in pairs on opposite edges of the feathers. Tail broken-barred with white or pale gray, usually narrowly and distinctly, on one or both webs, and tipped with the same; but there is great individual variation in this respect, as may also be said of the amount and character of the spotting of the upper parts. Under parts from the breast backward, including the crissum, closely and regularly cross-barred with rich reddish-brown, or even reddish-brown, or even reddish-black, upon a white ground, the alternating bars of color usually of about equal widths - if anything, the white the broadest.

Hawk Owl

"Surnia funerea. American Hawk Owl. Day Owl. Bill and eyes yellow; claws brownish-black. Upper parts…

"Haematopus ostrilegus. European Oyster-catcher. (oyster-opener would b a better name, as oysters do not run fast). Upper parts glossy-black, like the head and neck. Quills, broadly margined with white on inner webs excepting towards end, and also with isolated white shafts and spaces near end. Back below, interscapulars, rump, and upper tail-coverts entirely white, as well as bases of the tail-feathers." Elliot Coues, 1884

European Oyster-catcher

"Haematopus ostrilegus. European Oyster-catcher. (oyster-opener would b a better name, as oysters do…

"Panurus biarmicus, the "Bearded Tit" or "Reed-Pheasant" plumage is orange-brown above, with grey crown and a black streak from the lores down the cheeks, where the feathers are elongated and point backwards; the wings are varied with black and white; the throat is greyish, the breast pinkish; the abdomen coloured like the back; the under tail-coverts are black, the bill is yellow. The hen has a buff head, while she lacks the black "moustache" and under tail-coverts." A. H. Evans, 1900

Reed Pheasant

"Panurus biarmicus, the "Bearded Tit" or "Reed-Pheasant" plumage is orange-brown above, with grey crown…

"Coturnix dactylisonans. Messina Quail. Migratory Quail. Common Quail of Europe. Upper parts variegated with buff or whitish and black upon a mixed reddish-brown and gray ground, the most conspicuous markings being sharp lance-lineal lengthwise stripes of buff or whitish over most of the upper parts, these dashes mostly edged with black; other less prominent buff or whitish cross-bars, several to a feather, likewise framed in black. Crown mixed brown and black, with sharp median and lateral buff stripes. Throat white, bounded before by a dark bar curving down behind the auriculars; behind, by a necklace of ruddy-brown, blackish, or whitish spots; chin varied with dark marks n advance of the auricular bar. Under parts fading to whitish from the buff or pale yellowish-brown breast, without any dark crossbars, but the long feathers of the sides and flanks with large and conspicuous white shaft-stripes and otherwise variegated with black, brown, and buff. Primaries fuscous, spotted with light brown on outer webs; secondaries similar, but the markings becoming bars on both webs. Tail-feathers brownish-black, much varied with shaft-lines, cross-bars, and edgings of buff; crissum immaculate, like the abdomen. Bill dark; feet pale; iris dark brown." Elliot Coues, 1884

Common Quail of Europe

"Coturnix dactylisonans. Messina Quail. Migratory Quail. Common Quail of Europe. Upper parts variegated…

"Machetes pugnax. Ruff. Reeve. Combatant. Gambetta. Varied above with black, brown, buff and chestnut, the sides of rump white; under parts white, breast and sides and crissum black, spotted with white; tail brown, barred with chestnut and white; quills dusky, with shafts; wing-coverts ashy-brown. Bill blackish, flesh-colored at base; legs dingy yellow; warty excrescences yellow; feathers of the ruff endlessly varied in color." Elliot Coues, 1884

Ruff

"Machetes pugnax. Ruff. Reeve. Combatant. Gambetta. Varied above with black, brown, buff and chestnut,…

"Passer domesticus, House Sparrow, The sexes may be similarly coloured or very different, the hues being commonly sober, but sometimes particularly brilliant. The feet are usually dull... the bill may be blackish, yellowish, dusky, or even red." A. H. Evans, 1900

Two House Sparrows, One Looking Down, One looking Straight, Sitting on the Top and Edge of a Structure

"Passer domesticus, House Sparrow, The sexes may be similarly coloured or very different, the hues being…

"Parus major, the Great Titmouse, are olive, brown, or grey, varied with black, white, chestnut, or buff, as in our Crested Tit. The sexes are very similar, the young often yellower." A. H. Evans, 1900

Great Titmouse

"Parus major, the Great Titmouse, are olive, brown, or grey, varied with black, white, chestnut, or…

"Picus major. European Spotted Woodpecker. Bill more or less nearly equal to head in length, stout, straight, truncate at tip, bevelled toward end, with sharp culmen and distinct lateral ridges on upper mandible; at base rather broader than high, with large nasal tufts hiding the nostrils; culmen, commissure and gonys straight or nearly so. Feet with the outer posterior longer than outer anterior toe; inner anterior intermediate between these. Wing long, pointed by the 4th, 3d, and 5th quills; 2d decidedly shorter (shorter than 7th, except in P. borealis); 1st fairly spurious. Species of medium and small size. All black and white (one brown-backed), the back striped or barred, the wings with numerous small round white spots on the quills; Male with red on the head." Elliot Coues, 1884

European Spotted Woodpecker

"Picus major. European Spotted Woodpecker. Bill more or less nearly equal to head in length, stout,…

"Picoïdes. Three-toed Woodpeckers. Three-toed: the hallux (1st toe) absent, the 4th toe reversed as usual in the family. Bill as in Picus proper, about as long as the head, stout, straight, with bevelled end and lateral ridges, and nasal tufts hiding the nostrils; very broad and much depressed at base, with the lateral ridges very low down, in most of their length close to and parallel with commissure; nostrils very near commissure; gonys about as long as from nostrils to end of bill. Wings very pointed; 1st quill spurious; 2d between 6th and 7th in length. Crown with a square yellow patch in the male; sides of head striped, of body barred, with black and white; under parts otherwise white; quills but not coverts with white spots; tail-feathers unbarred, the outer white, the central black. All the species of this genus are unquestionably modified derivatives of one circumpolar stock; the American seem to have become completely differentiated from the Asiatic and European, and further divergence seems to have perfectly separated arcticus from americanus; but dorsalis and americanus are still linked together. Elliot Coues, 1884

Three-toed Woodpeckers

"Picoïdes. Three-toed Woodpeckers. Three-toed: the hallux (1st toe) absent, the 4th toe reversed…