BBC_Earth_UK_-_January_2017

Incredible everyday

The feather

They are light and deceptively simple – but also iridescent

and ingenious. Joe Shute dazzles us with pluming

marvellous facts about one of nature’s strongest structures

N

ext to a shelf of recipe books

and tucked behind the

thermostat in a corner of my

kitchen, I keep the feather

of a feral pigeon. It was retrieved a year or so

ago from beneath a most insalubrious railway

arch where the birds roost, and at first glance

is a far-from-obvious keepsake. Indeed,

when I first picked the feather up it was being

blown about the street like some discarded

crisp packet. But look closer and you see one

of the great wonders of the world.


ere are three colours shaded across,

from white to navy grey to charcoal. At

the base of the quill is a wisp of soft down

designed to keep the pigeon warm. 
e rest

is as sharp and rigid as the teeth of a comb.


e feather is deceptively simple. But

thanks to it, the pigeon, like some 10,000

other species of bird across the world, flies

more gracefully than any invention humans

have devised. It is miraculous and, as an

essentially dead structure, it requires almost

no maintenance or metabolic effort.

Principally, a bird uses feathers to fly,

keep warm, attract a mate, challenge rivals,

hunt and disguise itself from unwanted

attention. 
e secretive nightjar, for example,

has evolved a plumage that resembles dead

leaves to better blend in.

Who’s a pretty boy? Whether you’re a glider, a flapper or a show-off, feathers serve a variety of purposes,

from keeping you warm to helping you fly. From left: mallard, rainbow lorikeet, macaw, jay and pigeon

WITH A FEATHER