It has heavily whitish-scaled feather edges from head to mantle and breast.

The main feature of this joint is the recessed shoulder to avoid the feather edge that would inevitably occur at the top of the arm.

The tail and wings are blackish with grey feather edges.

The wings are dusky with narrow yellow feather edges and two off-white wing bars.

Juvenile birds have white feather edges above, giving a scaly appearance.

Females are much duller than males and are mainly brown, often with pale feather edges giving them a scaled or speckled appearance.

Its face is surrounded by a dark feather edge and it has relatively short ear tufts.

The outermost primaries of large soaring birds, particularly raptors, often show a pronounced narrowing at some variable distance along the feather edges.

The belly is white and the breast is blackish with white feather edges giving a scaly appearance.

It was small, suitable for his hand, and the blade was honed to a feather edge on either side.