“If birds of a feather flock together, they don’t learn enough,” said the famous American author and businessman Robert Half. He may be right in his statement about people who are too much alike not learning enough, but scientists, on the other hand, are still questioning the idea of how feathers lead to flight.

Feathers are complex structures with a long history. I first became interested in them while watching a music video about a girl who wanted to fly and hearing stories about how many cultures thought that feathers are like a bird’s hair which was a sign of the creature’s strength. Anyone who had a feather ornament would be thought of as someone who understood nature. Therefore, in order to increase your understanding of the natural world, I would like to share with you information about how they are structured, their function, and how they evolved. 

Feathers are modified scales that have many functions and are a part of a lovely natural wonder that we see almost every day and take for granted, birds. According to Alton Biggs, author of “Biology: The Dynamics of Life”, there are 2 main kinds of feathers, contour and down feathers. Contour feathers are composed of a stiff, leading edge, a flexible trailing edge, and a hollow shaft. National Geographic writer Carl Zimmer says that from the shaft extends a series of slender barbs, each sprouting smaller barbules lined with tiny hooks. The millions of tiny hooklets attach to neighboring barbules creating a light, but strong structural network. Sturdy contour feathers are used for flight. Their asymmetrical shape is what allows birds to withstand the force of air. Contrastingly, underneath the contour feathers are down feathers, small, fluffy feathers with no hooks to hold the filaments together.  These feathers are used to insulate the body.

Zimmer notes that other functions of feathers include making or muffling noise, they’re used for floating or snowshoeing, courtship, concentrating sound to improve hearing, nest building, assisting in digestion, carrying water, and escape from predators by shedding.

Despite their current functions, feathers did not originally evolve for flight. Zimmer states that to generate lift a bird has to tilt its wings, adjusting the flow of air above and below them, a process that the very first dinosaurs with feathers could not perform. Zimmer also says that some primitive feathers looked more like the hollow bristles that are found growing out of the skin of chicken embryos while other feathers were unlike anything we see today and did not have the asymmetrical structure found in many of today’s bird’s contour feathers which allows them to fly. This lead scientists to believe that the first feathers found on dinosaurs were more for show than anything else.  

In conclusion, feathers are multipurpose, complex structures that are needed for flight, but aren’t the only thing that’s needed. They commonly come in two forms today, contour and down, they have many uses, and they evolved from dinosaurs. So, the next time you hear the saying, “birds of a feather flock together”, you’ll know a little more about the feathers part and what you know is supported by science.