Chicken Anatomy Quiz – Comb, Hackles, Sickles and Spur

All 16 parts on the diagram

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Start here: 8 main parts 8

Comb The fleshy red crest on top of the head. Hens have one too, but a rooster's comb is bigger.
Beak The hard, pointed mouth, also called the bill.
Wattles The flaps of red skin that hang under the beak. There is one on each side. They are bigger on a rooster.
Hackles The long feathers down the back and sides of the neck. A chicken can raise them.
Sickles The tail's two longest curved feathers. Only roosters have them.
Breast The round front of the body, below the neck.
Shank The bare part of the leg between the thigh and toes. It is covered in small scales.
Toes They are at the end of each leg. The chicken stands on them.

Head: 4 1

Earlobe A small fleshy patch on the side of the head. It sits below the ear. With the comb and wattles, it is one of the chicken's fleshy growths.

Feathers: 7 5

Saddle The feathers covering the back in front of the tail. On a rooster they are long and pointed.
Main tail feathers The long, straight feathers that form the tail, under the sickles.
Wing bow The short feathers on the top front of the folded wing. Sometimes called the shoulder.
Wing bar The short feathers across the middle of the folded wing. They cover the base of the flight feathers.
Primaries The wing's longest, outermost feathers, the main flight feathers. On a folded wing they lie at the back.

Body and legs: 5 2

Thigh The feathered top of the leg, under the body.
Spur A pointed growth of bone covered in horn. It is on the back of the shank.

How this list was compiled: Read 2026-09-27. (1) Wikipedia, List of poultry feathers (after the British Poultry Standards, 6th and 7th editions, pp. 13-14), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_poultry_feathers : hackles, saddle feathers (long and pointed in cocks), sickles (the two longest curved tail feathers, only in cocks), main tail feathers, wing bow coverts, wing bar, primaries. (2) The plate it shows, A Silver Wyandotte Male, from J. E. Hodgins and T. H. Haskett, The Veterinary Science (Detroit, c. 1907), p. 550, public domain: beak or bill, wattles, breast, thigh, shank, toes, saddle, sickle, flight of the wing, wing bow or shoulder, hackle, ear lobe, comb, spur. (3) Wikipedia, Comb (anatomy), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comb_(anatomy) : the comb, wattles and earlobes are the fleshy growths on a chicken's head; Rooster, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooster : both sexes have a comb and wattles, more prominent in males; Hackles, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackles : erectile feathers on the back and side of the neck; Spur (zoology), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spur_(zoology) : an outgrowth of bone covered in a sheath of horn. Licence: own work

The drawing: Drawn for this site by script, 2026-09-27. Own work, nothing traced. Licence: own work

How it works

This chicken anatomy quiz names a part and you tap it on the drawing, a rooster side-on. It covers the outside of the bird, comb to toes, not the bones or organs.

Read the full guide

Nine easier parts, then seven harder ones

The first stage asks the comb, beak, wattles, hackles, sickles, breast, shank, toes and earlobe. The second asks the parts people mix up: the saddle, the main tail feathers, the wing bow, the wing bar, the primaries, the thigh and the spur.

Feather names that get swapped

Hackles hang down the neck; the saddle lies over the back, just in front of the tail. The sickles are the two long curved feathers, and the main tail feathers are the straight ones beneath them. On the folded wing the bow is the upper band, next to the shoulder, and the bar is the band below it, lying over the base of the flight feathers.

The comb drawn here is a single comb: one upright blade with a row of points, from beak to back of the head.

Questions and answers

Do hens have spurs?

Some do. Both hens and roosters can grow spurs, but they are more common and usually larger on roosters. A spur is a core of bone in a sheath of horn, on the back of the shank.

What is a chicken's comb for?

It works as a signal. The comb can show how healthy and vigorous a bird is, and in some poultry species mates are judged by it.

What are the comb, wattles and earlobes called together?

Caruncles. They are the fleshy growths on a chicken's head: the comb on top, a wattle on each side under the beak, and an earlobe on each side of the face.