Feathers and Flight Flashcards
What is a pennaceous feather?
A feather with a stalk and calamus.
What is the central stalk of a bird feather called?
The rachis.
What are the small things that extend from the rachis in a feather called?
The barbs.
True or false? Some dinosaurs had feathers.
True.
What do feathers help a bird to do?
Fly, insulate themselves, waterproof themselves, camouflage, and attract mates.
Where are feathers formed?
In tiny follicles in the epidermis.
What are feathers made of?
Beta keratins.
What kinds of bonds create the protein strands necessary to create beta keratins?
Hydrogen bonds.
Name the parts of the feather.
- Vane
- Rachis
- Barb
- Afterfeather
- Calamus
What are the two basic kinds of feathers?
Vaned feathers and down feathers.
Where are down feathers?
Beneath the vaned feathers.
What connect the barbs of a feather together?
Tiny barbules.
True or false? Pennaceous feathers are down feathers.
Fale. They are vaned feathers.
What is another name for pennaceous feathers?
Contour feathers.
What is a filoplume?
A hairlike feather that grows along the fluffy down feathers.
What are the remiges?
The flight feathers on the wing.
What are the retrices?
The flight feathers on the tail.
Are the retrices or remiges more important for flight?
Retrices.
What is the main shaft or stalk of a feather called?
The rachis.
What is the hollow base of a feather called?
The calamus.
What are the special down feathers of young birds called?
Neossoptiles.
In what special way are flight feathers stiffened?
They are stiffened so they work against the air on the downstroke, but yield in other directions.
How wil some birds keep their eggs and young warm?
They wil line the nest with their feathers.
True or false? The feathers of a bird weigh more than its skeleton.
True.
Why do some birds have different colored feathers on their top and bottom?
To camouflage them in flight.
What is the special “dark to and light bottom” camoflage type called?
Countershading.
True or false? Male birds look the same to females as they do to us.
False. Birds can see UV light, so the males appear more colorful depending on if they have UV reflecting feathers.
What is powder down used for?
It waterproofs and conditions the feathers.
Where does powder down come from?
It breaks off from the end of the barbules.
What is the main way birds lose their waterproofing?
Exposure to pollution.
Why is waterproofing very important in birds that live on the water?
Their feathers become waterlogged without it and they sink.
What is unusual about the feathers of the cormorant?
They soak up water to allow them to dive better.
Describe bristle feathers.
They are stiff with large rachis and few barbs.
What are rictal bristles?
Bristles that are found around the eyes and bill.
What purpose do rictal bristles serve?
They act like eyelashes.
What interesting behavior do grebes exhibit with their feathers?
They eat their feathers and feed them to their young.
What is the main theory as to why grebes eat their feathers?
To help them form pellets.
True or false? Contour feathers are evenly distributed throughout the skin.
False. Only penguins, screamers, and some other rare exceptions have evenly distribured feathers.
What are the specific tracts of skin that feathers grow from called?
Pterylae.
What are the tracts of skin that no feathers grow from called?
Apterylae.
What is pterylography?
The arrangement of feathers on a bird.
What is pterylography used for?
Determining evolutionary relationships in bird families.
What produces the colors in feathers?
Pigments.
What is structural coloration?
The production of colors by structures fine enough to interfere with visible light.
Peacock tail feathers appear green and blue, but structural coloration is responsible for this illusion. What color are they pigmented?
Brown.
Who first observed structural coloration?
Isaac Newton and Robert Hooke.
What principle causes structural coloration?
Wave interference
What is irridescence?
When things appear to change color as the angle of view changes.
How was structural coloration discovered?
Robert Hooke noted that a peacock’s feather lost its irridescence when it was plunged into water, but regained it when exposed to the air.
What are two everyday examples of structural coloration and irridescence?
One-way mirrors and CDs.
What structures cause structural coloration in animals?
Diffraction gratings, selective mirrors, photonic crystals, and matrices of proteins.
True or false? It is possible to see the structures that cause structural coloration with the naked eye.
False. An electron microscope is needed. Many of these optical tricks occur at a cellular level.
What is a diffraction grating?
A component with a structure that splits and diffracts light in several different directions.
What is a photonic crystal?
A nanostructure that affects the motion of photons.
What is a photon?
It is a quantum of light or radiation. It has zero mass, but contains energy.
What si the difference between albinos and leucistics?
Albinos only have reduced melanin production. Leucistics have reduced production of all pigments.
What feather structure causes structural coloration that appears yellow or green?
The Dyck structure.
What gland on a bird produces oil that can cause irridescence on them?
The uropygial gland.
What is a pin feather? (Also called a blood feather)
A developing feather.
When do pin feathers grow?
During infancy or replacements.
What does a pin feather look like?
A feather shaft.
What will happen if a pin feather is damaged?
The bird will begin to bleed.
What happens as a pin feather grows longer?
The blood supply is concentrated to only the base of the feather and the feather itself is covered in a waxy coating. The birds then preen and remove this coating and the feather unfurls.
What follicles do pin feathers form from?
The same ones that the old feathers came from.
When studying the evolution of feathers, what possible functions do scientists focus on?
Insulation, display, and flight.
What do darker feathers resist better than lighter ones?
Bacteria.
Why do brighter colors in a bird attract more mates?
Healthy birds have brighter colors, so it is a sign of fitness.
What is anting and why do birds do it?
Anting is the process of a bird rubbing ants or other insects on its feathers. No one is sure why they do it, but the two theories are that birds either do it to kill parasites on their feathers or render the insects edible by making them release the acids there.
What are the three main ways birds maintain their feathers?
Preening, bathing, and dust bathing.
What kinds of parasites do birds most commonly host?
Feather lice and feather mites.
Where does the word “pen” come from?
The Latin word “penna”, meaning feather.
True or false? Feathers are slow to decompose.
True.
What is the eagle feather law?
A law that allows only registered members of Native American tribes to be in posession of eagle feathers.
What are the feathers of the Indian peafowl used to treat in Indian tradition medicine?
Snakebite, infertility, and coughs.
What is the Lacey Act of 1900?
An act introduced by John F. Lacey (R) to President McKinley that prohibited trade in wildlife or plants that had been illegally obtained.
What kind of feathers are the feathers used in modern hair accessories?
Rooster feathers.
What kind of feathers do South American natives use in their medicines?
Condor.
Why are feathers most often used in high class bedding?
They are soft and trap heat easily.