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General Anatomy
Heads
The picture illustrates a ferruginous hawk and shows several features common to most raptors. The cere is the bare area surrounding the nostrils and can be different colours according to species, age and sex of the bird. The gape is the edge of the mouth and is most obvious in very young birds. The iris can also vary in colour according species, age and sex. The forehead can vary in angle of slope, whilst the supra-orbital ridge is what gives some birds the threatening appearance.
In this generalized passerine head you can see several features that may not all be distinguishable on a real bird. The crown stripes (median, lateral, supercilium and eye) and the cheek stripes (moustachial, sub-moustachial and malar) are shown in order to familiarize the reader with their relative positions, lots of birds will show only 1 or 2 of the stripes. The two enclosed areas show the position of feather groups, which may or may not be different to the surrounding feathers, the lore is the area between the eye and beak whilst the ear coverts (also known as auricluars) are the feathers covering the ear opening.
Beaks
Wings
