Feathers of birds
by Andrzej Krupiński
Feathers of birds
 Function feather;
 Structure feather;
 Type feather;
 Fluffy feather;
 Cover feather;
 RECTRICES;
 Pinton;
 Curiosty;
 Body of birds cover
feathers. Only birds have
feather. They have wellconsidered construction, a
lot of colours of feathers,
variety of bodies –that's
what nature gave for birds.
Feather of birds protect
them from cold, warm,
water, lure the partner. The
most important they serve
to fly. Every feather has
other function. The smallest
and the softest are downy
feather. They grow near the
body are light and downy.
They protect birds from
losing warm. They are
almost invisible.
 Feather is built from elastic axis and two
flags: outside and inside. Up part of axis
of feather has shape quadrangular has a
name toxina (stosina in polish), down
part of axis of feather has shape oval
which is below flag has a name rachis.
 Inside part of rachis is built from softly
scales and has name soul. Flags of
feather are built from rays which grow
both side of rachis. Rays and growing
from them smaller rays are connected
by softly hooks.
 There are four main types
 - RECTRICES
of feathers:
 FLIGHT FEATHER- They
create carrying surface of
feathers; one bird has from
30 to 98( birds have long
wings); they are 3 types of
flight feathers, in order
from top of wing:
 in the first place
 in the second place
 And in the third place.
 - COVER FEATHER
 - DOWNY FEATHER
They fulfil as heat
insulation, they are
very sensitive for
dampness. Cover
feathers block tightly
water to birds.
They are important
because birds use them
to turn and stop before
landing on the earth.
Rectrices (sterówki) are
counter- weight when
birds go on the earth,
jump on the branches.
In Smithsonian Institution in
Washington works Ms. Roxie
Laybourne. From 40 years she
studies feathers. She has collection
thousand of specimens. Every bird
has some specific feature of
feathers. She can define species of
bird on the base of its feathers. She
is asking often to identify bird
which cause crash plane. She is
really „Detective of birds”.
Feathers use up and for
some time are
destroyed and couldn’t
be functional. Birds can
broke the feather and
lose it in fight with
predator .Birds
experience molt, some
birds all the year
(parrot) other at the
certain time in the year.