• Question: Why do birds have feathers?

    Asked by to James, Natalie, Shaylon on 26 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: James Bell

      James Bell answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Birds have feathers that are light and strong to allow them to push down on air with enough force to allow them to fly.

      Birds have lots of adaptations to flight and feathers are just one. Did you also know that birds have hollow skeletons and, to minimise weight, make more concentrated wee than we do (so they don’t have to carry as much water around)

      Lightness is everything to birds – sometimes condors (huge birds that look like vultures) will eat so much meat that they get too heavy to fly and have to wait a while before they are light enough to fly again 😛

    • Photo: Natalie Pilakouta

      Natalie Pilakouta answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      James is right in that feathers help with flight, but birds actually evolved feathers BEFORE they could fly. Scientists believe that feathers initially evolved to serve different functions other than flight, such as insulation and temperature regulation (because birds are endotherms like mammals). There is also evidence that at least one dinosaur (birds are dinosaurs by the way) used its feathers for defence. It is also possible that feathers helped males evolve more elaborate and impressive colour patterns and structures (like crests) to impress females, because there is only so much you can do with scales!

    • Photo: Shaylon Stolk

      Shaylon Stolk answered on 26 Jun 2014:

      Birds use feathers for flight, warmth, and communication. Being able to glide or fly has huge advantages, which is probably a reason that natural selection favored feathers in the birds that evolved them. Plus feathers are incredibly warm– it’s like a personal goose-down vest (birds can fluff their feathers to vent heat as well).

      We think feathers evolved from scales. Many dinosaurs had feathers made of the same substance (beta-keratin) found in modern birds. Scientists have used microscopic and chemical analysis of fossils to give us a pretty good idea about what dinosaurs really looked like: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/20/a-velociraptor-without-feathers-isnt-a-velociraptor/

Comments