Facts About Feathersby Lorraine Julien
When you look closely at some of the
things in nature, it’s often the little things that are the most
interesting and unique. Feathers are quite complex and are a good
example of nature’s wonders.
The following general feather facts
mainly describe the functionality of feathers. My thanks to the
www.earthlife.net website from which I’ve gleaned a lot of this
information. Of course we all know that feathers allow for flight,
but feathers are so important in many other ways:
Feathers provide insulation and
protection from UV light – amazingly the body temperature of most
birds is kept at about 40C.
Feathers control what a bird looks
like – a chicken does not look very attractive once its feathers
are removed.
Feathers can be attractive to the
opposite sex. In the bird kingdom, it is usually the male that has
showy displays of feathers. One good example is the Peacock that has
such fabulous tail feathers he looks as though he’s taking part in
a Mardi Gras parade! The Peahen, in contrast, is a dull brown and
bears no resemblance at all to that of her extrovert partner.
Feathers provide camouflage in a
lot of cases – just think of birds such as the Whip-poor-will that
nest on the ground. They blend in with leaves on the forest floor
and are so camouflaged that you could almost step on them.
Feathers evolved from reptilian
scales – birds still possess scales on the lower parts of their
legs and feet
Feathers are like fingernails –
once they are fully developed they are dead matter; however, muscles
are attached to the base of each feather so that they can be moved
individually to help keep them in place
Birds have many different kinds of
feathers - two of the main types are as follows:
- The largest feathers are called
“contour” feathers. These large feathers include the flight
feathers which are called remiges and the tail feathers which are
called retrices. The contour feathers give the bird its shape and
colour and also provide a first line of defense against the sun, wind
and rain, something like a nylon windbreaker. Because the flight and
tail feathers are most susceptible to the weather, they are typically
those you find on the ground.
- The second most important feathers
are the “down” feathers. They are soft and fluffy and provide
good insulation, so good that humans have used them for years: some
present day examples are sleeping bags, comforters and duvets, winter
jackets and coats, and pillows. Years ago, many people, especially if
they lived on farms, slept on mattresses and pillows made of goose
down and feathers. The absolute best type of down though is collected
from Eider ducks.
When a bird is incubating its
eggs, patches of feathers fall out thus leaving the bare skin on the
abdomen to transfer heat directly to the eggs, which speeds up
development of the embryo. Interestingly, the number of patches
usually corresponds to the number of eggs!
Abrasion plumage: Usually we see
only the tips of the contour feathers. Because the feathers get worn
away at the tips, the bird’s plumage changes colour as the
feathers age. This may explain why some birds have different colours
in winter and in spring. By early spring, the winter plumage has
worn away at the tips revealing the more colourful new plumage
beneath. Snow Buntings are a good example of this.
At the small end of the scale the
Ruby Hummingbird (Archilochus colubris) has the least feathers of
any bird.
On the other hand, the Whistling
Swan (Cygnus columbianus) can have the most feathers – at least
during the winter when it can have as many as 25,000.
This is just a bit of information
regarding feathers. In another column, I’ll try to describe the
anatomy of feathers.
Please feel free to report any
observations to Lorraine Julien at naturewatching@gmail.com or
Steve Blight at natureobservations@rogers.com
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