 As no complete dodo specimens exist , its external appearance , such as plumage and colouration , is hard to determine . Illustrations and written accounts of encounters with the dodo between its discovery and its extinction ( 1598 – 1662 ) are the primary evidence for its external appearance . According to most representations , the dodo had greyish or brownish plumage , with lighter primary feathers and a tuft of curly light feathers high on its rear end . The head was grey and naked , the beak green , black and yellow , and the legs were stout and yellowish , with black claws . A study of the few remaining feathers on the Oxford specimen head showed that they were pennaceous rather than <unk> ( downy ) and most similar to those of other pigeons . 
