Facts About Feathers

Apr 15, 2010

by 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 This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.  or Steve Blight at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.