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SCV Outdoor Report: Feathers Tell A Tale

By Wendy Langhans

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This red tailed hawk displays blunt ended tail feathers and tapered wing feathers. Provided by: Lilian Darling Holt

When you see a feather on the ground, have you ever wondered where it came from?  Was it a Red-tailed hawk or a Western scrub jay?  Did you ever wonder why that bird lost that feather?  Was it an encounter with a predator or a natural part of its annual or semi-annual molt, where worn-out feathers are replaced with new ones?  When you ask the right questions, feathers tell a tale.

 

When I spot a feather on the ground, I usually see a flight feather or a contour feather.

Flight feathers are the strong tail and wing feathers that are used for flight.  They’re long and sleek, with symmetrical sides and a blunt end (tail) or asymmetrical sides and a tapered end (wing).  Contour feathers, on the other hand, cover the body and are what gives shape and color to the bird.  They have a “fuzzy” down at their base.

 

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This contour feather has fuzzy down near the base of the shaft. It comes from a mallard duck. Provided by: Wendy Langhans

Color and size give me a clue to what bird it came from.  Some clues are easy.  A large long coal-black feather, for example, could be a flight feather from crow or a raven or turkey vulture.  But sometimes I really don’t know.  And just who decided that a tale always has to have a neatly packaged ……?

 

For more information about feathers, you can visit:

 

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources http://files.dnr.state.mn.us/publications/volunteer/young_naturalists/feathers/feathers.pdf

 

And The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/studying/feathers/feathers

 

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SCV Outdoor Report: Feathers Tell A Tale

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