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Types of Feathers

Feathers consist of a shaft bearing barbs on each side, which bear barbules ending in hooked hamuli that interlock adjacent barbs into a continuous vane. There are six main types of feathers: flight, contour, down, semiplume, filoplume, and bristle. Each feather is made of keratin and composed of a rachis with barbs and barbules that can hook together like velcro. Feathers provide insulation, waterproofing, sensory information and play roles in flight, display, and camouflage. Birds molt feathers to change coloration for breeding and non-breeding plumage.

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464 views

Types of Feathers

Feathers consist of a shaft bearing barbs on each side, which bear barbules ending in hooked hamuli that interlock adjacent barbs into a continuous vane. There are six main types of feathers: flight, contour, down, semiplume, filoplume, and bristle. Each feather is made of keratin and composed of a rachis with barbs and barbules that can hook together like velcro. Feathers provide insulation, waterproofing, sensory information and play roles in flight, display, and camouflage. Birds molt feathers to change coloration for breeding and non-breeding plumage.

Uploaded by

Tarif Aziz
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Feathers

Any of the light horny epidermal outgrowths that form the external covering of the
body of birds and that consist of a shaft bearing on each side a series of barbs
bearing barbules which in turn bear barbicels commonly ending in hooked hamuli
and interlocking with the barbules of an adjacent barb to link the barbs into a
continuous vane.

Types of Feathers
Feathers come in many different shapes, but all of them can be classified
into six different types of feathers. The feathers we are used to seeing are
flight and contour. Down feathers are what we use in pillows, quilts, and
jackets. The other three feathers, semiplume, filoplume, and bristle, are
not as common, but still useful to birds.
Flight feathers are found two
places on birds: the wings and tail. Flight feathers are long, and on the wings,
have one side of the vane wider than the other. They also have stronger
barbules which give them more strength for flight.
Contour feathers give shape and color to the bird. They are found
everywhere except the beak, legs, and feet. Contour feathers are colored only
at the ends (the only part that we see). At its base, a contour feather becomes
downy which helps to insulate the bird.
Down feathers have little or no shaft. They are soft and fluffy.
Down feathers help to insulate birds by trapping air. Some birds, such as
herons, have special down feathers called powder down which breaks up into a
fine powder. The bird then spreads this fine powder all over its body to act as
a water repellant.
Semiplume feathers are a cross between down and contour
feathers. Unlike down, they do have a well formed shaft. However, they do
not have well developed barbicels which make them soft. Semiplume feathers
are found underneath contour feathers and are used for insulation.
Bristle feathers are very stiff with only a few barbs found at the base.
Bristle feathers are found around the mouth of insect eating birds where they
act as a funnel. They can also be found around the eyes where they work like
eyelashes.
Filoplume feathers are incredibly small. They have a tuft of barbs at the
end of the shaft. Unlike other feathers which are attached to muscle for
movement, filoplume feathers are attached to nerve endings. These feathers
send messages to the brain that give information about the placement of
feathers for flight, insulation, and preening.

Feathers and Plumage


Have you ever seen a bird without feathers? Today, all birds have feathers and
birds are the only animals with feathers. However, it would be inaccurate to use
feathers as a way of defining birds. This is mostly because there were several non-
bird dinosaurs that had wings. One of these was the Caudipteryx. This species had
wings but they were not sufficient for flying. These extinct bird-relatives did use
the feathers and plumage for many other adaptive things, such as insulation,
breeding, and camouflage. We shall examine all of this and other adaptations for
feathers and plumage in this section.
Types of feathers:
Bird feathers are amazingly complex. Each feather is made from the protein
Keratin. While keratin also makes up snake and lizard scales, it is a slightly
different compound in birds. The three main types of feathers are the filoplumes
(sensory feathers), the contour feathers, and the down feathers (insulation).
One of the reasons bird feathers are so complex is that each feather is made up of
many different parts. The feather is similar in many ways to a palm frond. The
rachis (same as in palms) is the central core. The area that the feather attaches to
the bird is called the calamus. The rachis has barbs that extend from it, which
collectively make up the vane. If you’ve picked up a feather you’ll notice that at
the bottom there are several ‘non-flat’ parts that are called the pennaceous section.
Along the feather, each barb has a shaft called a ramus. From each side of the
ramus are barbules and barbicels. In essence they act like modern day velcro. One
side can hook onto the other and keep the wing stiff. As a kid I’m sure everyone
has run their fingers the wrong way down a bird feather and separated them. Birds
can ‘zip-up’ their feathers by running them the other way and in essence, re-
hooking the barbules and barbicels.

Down Feathers: These feathers do not have barbules on


them even though they still have some of the same structure as a normal feather.
They are normally very soft because they lack the stiff barbes.
Modified Feathers:
(OWLS) : Some birds have modified this arrangement. Owls for instance have
velvet-like projections that extend from their feathers that allow them to fly
silently.
(Sand-Grouse): Sand-Grouse that live in desert locations have feathers with highly
curled barbs. These barbs will hold water when a bird dips into an oasis. This
allows the bird to then fly back to the nestlings and they can drink from the birds
breast.
Arrangement:
There are 10 primary feathers, connected to the hands that are used to produce
thrust (labeled with roman numerals) and several secondary feathers connected to
the forelimb that are used to produce lift. There are also several rows of coverts on
the upper and lower wing that are arranged in-between the primary and secondary
feathers.
Look at a bird and you’ll notice that their wings are overlapping. Another type of
‘bird velcro’ is the connectivity of these feathers through friction barbules. They
are also on the tail feathers (known as retrices).

Weird Feathers on Birds:


There are a few birds that have highly modified feathers. The following are some
note able ones.
Nightjars: These birds produce a very elongated secondary flight feather that is
used in breeding. It does not have aerodynamic properties and instead probably
restricts their flight. After the mating season they fall off (or are bitten off).
Manikins: In the neo tropical forest, manikins form breeding leks and will often
snap their feathers down, creating a very loud fire-cracker like sound. This is
caused by the secondary feathers that have very large shafts.
Motmots: The tail-feathers of mot-mots are extremely elongated. These are
probably used to give some sort of social signal to others of their kind.
Spatuletail Hummingbird: The Marvelous Spatuletail has a very long extended
tail feather. Scientists do not know exactly what the purpose of this is. It is doubtful
that there are any improvements in their flight because of it.
Honeyguides and Snipes: Their tail-feathers have a lot of space in between them.
When air passes through it causes turbulence and a lot of noise.
Woodpeckers: The shafts of the tails of woodpeckers are
modified for support so that when they perch on the side of trees they can brace
themselves vertically.
Caprimulgiform birds (nightjars and kin): These birds have highly modified
feathers that look like whiskers. They are actually just contour feathers, but are
probably sensory adaptations to help them catch bugs.
Bristle-thighed curlews: These birds have modified feathers associated with the
upper portion of their leg. These feathers are probably extra sensory feathers to
determine the depth of water they are standing in.

Bird Feathers
How many feathers to birds have? To determine this you’d have to keep track of
feathers into the thousands. When you plucked (as you would a chicken), you’d
notice though that the feathers didn’t cover the bird like a grass covers your lawn.
Instead there are rows (tracks) of feathers. Since the feathers overlap each other, its
seems like they are all one continuous covering.
Preen Glands
Have you ever seen a bird nosing under its tail and then stroking its plumage? The
preen gland, that hold the musty oils that help cover and waterproof the feathers
are found just under the tail.
Bird Ecoto-parasites:
Feather parasites like lice, can really do a number of the feathers. They actually eat
the feathers and effect the insulation of the birds.
Molt:
Ever noticed that birds don’t stay the same color? Unlike humans, they can change
color through a process of changing out the feathers. New feathers start to grow
through the stalk of the old ones and are then ‘molted’. The basic coloration of a
bird can usually be remembered as the ‘non-breeding’ color. The alternate
coloration of the bird is usually the breeding plumage. Many birds will thus molt
twice a year, once to the alternate and once to the basic phase.
Pigmentation:
The colors on bird feathers are caused by a combination of the pigments and the
placement of the pigments on the wings. Certain pigments like carotenoids produce
yellows, and reds. Others like melanins produce the browns and grays. Blue and
green plumage is very different because they have many pigments that produce
them.
The placement of the pigments are important because some birds have their
pigments packed on the barbs and others have them on the shaft of the feather.
Thus, if you were to examine a bird that had red on the barbs, a worn bird would
appear less red!

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