Birds of a Feather....

Out and about, I find an interest in a number of things that most people would just pass by and never even notice. Case in point...a bird's feather that was on the ground. Not that this was any special feather to anyone other than the bird that lost it. It seems like this would not be too appropriate of time to be losing feathers since we are facing perhaps some of the coldest weather yet of this winter. Some poor bird is a bit colder tonight just because of this one feather. This particular feather came from a Blue Jay. As raucous as they get, the Jay might have lost this feather while aggravating some other poor bird or perhaps the Sparrow Hawk took a liking to Jay for a meal!

All birds have feathers and anything that has feathers is a bird..wow! Imagine that...birds of a feather and all of that. Anyway, this feather interested me to the point that I became curious of just how a bird uses its feathers to keep warm. I grabbed the feather and headed to the computer to do a little research. I was right in assuming that when a bird fluffs out its feathers, it is actually insulating itself with layers of air trapped between the feathers. Smart birds! So the next time you see a nice fluffy bird, you will know that it is cold outside! They are sort of like a thermometer...you can tell the temperature by how fluffy they are!

Cardinal fluffed out against the cold.

I did, however, learn something about feathers that I did not know! They are made sort of like zippers! It seems that feathers have a central shaft called a rachis and a bunch of smaller side branches. These side branches are then divided into subbranches or the feathery part as we see it. The subbranches are actually little barbs. The barbules are connected together with little hooklets. Hmmmm..I have never heard of those words before! After reading about the barbules and hooklets..this all began to make sense, though. If you have ever seen a feather that is sort of ragged or separated and then smoothed it back together again by running your fingers over it, you have just connected the barbules and hooklets! You sort of "zipped" the feather back together again! This explains why birds preen their feathers so much! They are zipping them back together again! Ok..so we all knew that feathers were a bird's clothes..now with all of this zipping, it is a proven fact!

Mockingbird using the insulation of his feathers to stay warm!

I worry about my little adopted Mockingbirds out in weather like this. I sure hope they learned how to zip up their feathers and fluff out against the cold! Knox..Shelby..zip up those coats..it is going to be a cold one out there tonight!