1. The entire clothing of a bird: The plumage consists of the the ordinary feathers, or contour feathers, that cover the head, neck, and body. The tail feathers are those with their upper and lower coverts.The wing feathers include primaries, secondaries, and tertiaries, feathers with their coverts. The down lies beneath the contour feathers.

2. The covering of feathers over a bird's body The plumage may vary with the age of the bird or the season of the year, and accordingly it may be described as breeding plumage, winter plumage, or juvenile, immature, or adult plumage.

In detailed descriptions of the external feathers (topography) of birds, standardized names are normally used for the various sections of the plumage, for example "malar region" and "tail coverts".

The "malar region" refers to the cheek, defined in birds as the area in front of, and slightly below the eyes.

The "tail coverts" are the small feathers covering the base of the tail. They are grouped as upper and lower tail coverts.