Bird feathers- how many types are there?

   Feathers are what makes birds, birds. We generally associate feathers with the ability to fly. However, there's pretty good evidence to show that feathers evolved long before flight and that feathers may have evolved for keep birds warm and/or for attracting mates.

    Bird feathers are in many ways similar to mammalian hair but, individual feathers have a much more complicated structure than hair. Imagine if hair on your body were branched or if different parts of the same hair were naturally a different color!

      Most extant birds, have three kinds of feathers. 1) Flight feathers are long, stiff, aerodynamically shaped, and found on the arm of the bird helping it fly. Each flight feather is uniquely shaped to work with others on the wing for powering flight.

2) Tail feathers can be long or short but more uniform in shape. They are used for maneuvering during flight, attracting mates and in woodpeckers for being a prop on vertical surfaces. Fun fact: the peacock’s train are elongated back feathers not its tail feathers.

3) Contour or body feathers cover most of a bird’s body. Contour feathers have a downy part of fuzzy barbs that are close to the body and stiffer pennaceous barbs in the outer half of the feather. Pennaceous barbs are the colorful part of the feather while downy barbs vary from white to grey to almost black. The downy barbs of the contour feather keep the bird warm by trapping little pockets of air in the feathers.

Next post: We will take a deeper dive into the feathers of Himalayan birds.

But here’s some information on how birds use adaptations other than feathers to keep warm.