Bird - External Anatomy
Colored pencil and marker on paper 11"x17"

Didn't realize that labeling would be so much work. ;-; Since I've always found illustrations with labels pointing to ambiguous parts of a diagram less than comprehensive, I'm also including text information for some of the body parts.

*note1* some of these may go by other names, I've tried to include alternate terms as well
*note2* all of these are self researched, if you notice any errors please let me know and provide a source

Terminology:
Crown - uppermost part of the head
Eyering - a colored circle surrounding the eye. (alt. eye-ring or eye ring)
Lore - the distance between the eye and the beak. This term is also used in fish and reptiles.
Upper mandible - the upper portion of the beak. (alt. upper beak, maxilla)
Lower mandible - the lower portion of the beak. (alt. lower beak)
Alula - projection of feathers on the edge of the wing. (alt. bastard wing)
Primary coverts - the set of feathers on the wing covering the primaries. These can be separated by the first, second and remaining rows as the greater, median and lesser primary coverts, respectively.
Flank - area on the side between the ribs and the hip
Hallux/hind toe - the "hallux" is actually the first digit of the foot, comparable to the "big toe" in humans. While the hallux is the hind toe in this specimen, the position of the digits differs according to the dactyly (arrangement of digits) of the bird species.
Tarsus - lower section of the leg, on a human this is comparable to the section from the ball of your foot to your heel
Tibia - upper section of the leg, on a human this is comparable to the lower half of your leg
Vent/cloaca - the singular excretory and genital opening
Undertail coverts - the set of feathers found under the tail
Uppertail coverts - the set of feathers covering the tail
Tail/rectrices - rectrices are tail feathers used to control direction in flight. (sing. rectrix)
Primaries - the set of feathers attached to the manus (the outermost part of a bird's wing). (alt. primary feathers)
Secondaries - the set of feathers attached to the ulna (the middle part of a bird's wing). (alt. secondary feathers)
Tertials - the set of feathers attached to the humerus (the innermost part of a bird's wing) or the innermost secondaries of some birds.
Secondary coverts - the set of feathers on the wing covering the secondaries. These can be separated by the first, second and remaining rows as the greater, median and lesser secondary coverts, respectively.
Scapulars - feathers found on the shoulder. (alt. scapular feathers)
Marginal coverts - the set of feathers covering the front edge of the wing.
Nape - back of the neck.
Occiput - back of the head
Auriculars/ear coverts - feathers surrounding the opening of the ear. (alt. ear patch)

An illustration I did during my internship at the Omaha Zoo of a bird. It was used for a poster showing the external anatomy of a bird for their educational department. The bird's anatomy and coloring are based off of a white-eyed vireo, but overall it's just a generic bird. The anatomy they had labeled was super generic, like "wing", "beak", "feet", so I didn't feel the need to make it overly species-specific. I later decided to label it myself with much more detailed anatomical features.

Art © Joanna Engelkemier, all rights reserved.
Do not copy, edit, alter, modify, repost, redistribute or otherwise use as protected by federal copyright law.