Are Birds The Only Animals With Feathers

_{(Photo by Bob Bryerton)}

Feathers are unique in the beast kingdom. All birds have them, but simply birds accept them. Enough of animals are covered in fur or scales, but birds and their feathers stand alone. Even other animals capable of flying, such as bats, don't have feathers.

So why feathers and not fur or scales? Feathers are vital to birds for many reasons. Primarily, though, birds utilise their feathers to aid in flight.

Feathers are made of a lightweight material called keratin, the same matter our hair and fingernails are made of, according to the Majestic Society for the Protection of Birds. This textile allows feathers to be lightweight, but also flexible all the same rigid enough to withstand the rigors of flight.

Muscles are attached to the base of each feather, which allows the bird to move them as needed. When in flight, every bit a bird flaps its wings down, the feathers move together. Then, as the bird moves its wings up, the feathers movement autonomously to allow air to pass through. The movement of the feathers aids in flight.

While feathers themselves are lightweight, their commonage weight can be more than a bird's skeleton, according to Mother Nature Network. Of grade, birds accept hollow basic, another adaptive feature that aids in flight, so their skeletons don't contribute much to their full body weight.

Likewise helping birds fly, some kinds of feathers, including downwards feathers and semiplume feathers, help keep birds warm. Birds are able to trap pockets of air close to their bodies using these feathers, which allows them to stay warm. They can even rearrange or adjust their feathers to trap more than or less air, depending on the temperature, according to Arizona State University. Sometimes when it's cold, yous can meet a bird fluffing its feathers. It does this to help trap more air, allowing them to stay warmer.

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In addition to flight and regulating body temperature, feathers are water resistant, which helps continue birds dry in the rain or in the water. Feathers, especially dark-colored ones, even help protect confronting the sun.

Feathers are also a role of a bird's identity. Their plumage is part of what makes it easy to tell a cardinal from a blue jay or goldfinch from a purple finch. The colors of a bird's feathers are also useful in attracting a mate.

And while some birds use their feathers to stand out, others apply them to blend in. Take the eastern screech owl. These birds are noted for their camouflage, making them very difficult to encounter set confronting the backdrop of a tree's bark, according to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Just similar we shed our hair and it is replaced past new strands, birds shed their feathers, a process chosen molting. Through molting, damaged feathers fall out and are replaced by new feathers, the National Audubon Guild reports. Molting varies by species. Some smaller birds molt one time or even twice a yr, while bigger birds with bigger feathers molt less oftentimes.

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Source: https://www.reconnectwithnature.org/news-events/the-buzz/nature-curiosity-why-birds-have-feathers

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