Incredible everyday
The feather/ 031due to birds possessing extra receptors that allow them to see
ultraviolet light. ‘They see a different world to all of us,’ he says.
Birds are warm-blooded and have a layer of down feathers
next to their skin, which keeps their body temperature
regulated at about 40°C (104°F). Ducks and geese sport the
most luxurious down, which is used by humans in duvets and
coats. The eider duck, which lines its nest with down feathers
plucked from the female’s breast, is the most coveted.
Humans have long been unable to resist using feathers
for their own ends, be it for decoration or weapons of war.
Traditionally, feathers, like furs, were used to indicate
power and to worship the gods. A particularly fine
example is a gilded headdress made of shimmering
emerald quetzal feathers worn by the Aztec rulers.
In Guyana in 1812, the English naturalist Charles
Waterton collected a similarly exotic headdress
revered by the Macua Indians.Bird or dinosaur?
In more modern times the great crested grebe,
which can be found in waterways across Britain, was nearly
hunted to extinction to make feather boas and muffs for the
gentry after the Great Exhibition of 1851, when furriers Robert
Clarke & Sons exhibited
the bodies of four great
crested grebes in full
breeding plumage. By the
close of the 19th century,
the grebe was reduced to
just 32 breeding pairs.
According to Professor
Graham Martin, a leading
authority on ornithology
at the University of
Birmingham, the
established thinking
among scientists used
to be that one could
define a bird as being the
only creature that possessed feathers. Recent discoveries
have changed all of that. In 2014, a fossil was unearthed in
Siberia of a tufted, two-legged running dinosaur dating from
roughly 160 million years ago. The discovery further enforced
the argument that feathers were in fact characteristic of all
dinosaurs. ‘We always agreed feathers were the thing that
uniquely defined birds,’ Prof Martin says. ‘But now you can’t
say that because of the dinosaurs.’
The development of the feather through millennia goes some
way towards explaining its complex structure and myriad
uses, and why there is so much left for scientists to discover.
For the rest of us, the real thing with feathers is simply to
stand back and admire one of nature’s great marvels. And
even when walking in the most unlikely spots, keep your eyes
peeled for what has drifted down from the sky.
Joe Shute writes for The Daily TelegraphFeathers are not just
useful in the air. With
their streamlined shape,
gannets can dive to
depths of 12m to hunt for
fish. Gentoo penguins
can hit underwater
speeds of 36km/h.Most birds shed all
their feathers after the
breeding season in a
process called moulting,
after which their plumage
regrows. Some songbirds- such as the chaffinch –
can moult twice annually.
House sparrows are
well known ‘dusters’,
fluttering and rolling
around in dry soil, which
absorbs excess oil to
keep their feathers in
good shape, and smothers
and removes parasites.Fine-feathered facts
Above: pheasant
feathers. Below: a
gyrfalcon up close.
Right: the great crested
grebe, almost wiped out
in Britain when it was
hunted for its plumagePhotographs: Alamy, iStock, Shutterstock