Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle

I found this book totally by accident. Browsing the fiction shelves at a Friends of the Library sale I was caught by its spine. The cover, so beautiful and bold, drew me in. When I discovered it wasn’t a novel, but a natural history of feathers I could barely get it in my bag fast enough. Thanks

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to whoever shelved it wrong!

While not a birder per se, I do have an appreciation for birds, flight and the marvels they are. So many different behaviors, environments and body styles - there are few things in nature as broadly diverse as birds. Then there are the feathers. I have a small collection of them in my home. Yes, I know this is a Federal Offense, but I can’t help it and have been known to hide a beautiful specimen on my way out on a hike so I can pick it up on the way back and have less chance of damaging it while I walk and prevent anyone else from snagging it. I also pick them up in the yard, on the road when walking to the mailbox and almost anywhere I find them. From a great blue heron primary to the pointy tail feather of a northern flicker and the contour feathers of turkeys - they are universally appealing. I even bought a field guide to feather identification so I could tell a broad wing hawk feather from a great horned owl feather. They are little wonders of nature and this book dives into the latest (well for 2011) theories and advances into how they evolved.

Here are some of the things I learned -
* Developing feathers, called pinfeathers have a blood supply. I’d always thought they were like claws or hair - like those things, they don't bleed and are largely made of keratin, but no - pinfeathers do bleed. The blood supply is connected until the feather is mature then it disconnects at the base of the follicle. When it’s time to replace it, the new pin feather ejects the worn-out feather. Astounding.
* Many birds scavenge feathers of other birds to line their nests - I always thought it was only their own feathers that filled that role. Nope.
* Some birds expose their legs and increase blood flow to them as a cooling strategy.
* Grebes eat feathers, their own or a duck feather floating by, in order to line their stomachs to protect against the bones of the fish they eat. They feed them to the chicks for the same purpose.
* Quill toothpicks were quite the industry and very popular into the 20th century.
* The US Supreme court distributes 20 (or more, it isn’t clear) quill pens every day on the counsel tables. No one uses them except as souvenirs.
* Old and New World vultures are not related to each other and evolved the bald head strategy independently. It is a direct result of eating carrion - blood and tissue stick to feathers and makes them useless and impossible to clean. No feathers, no problem!

Written in an engaging and enthusiastic style, the book was continually interesting and entertaining. It begins with feathered dinosaur finds and scientists working on the evolution of feathers and flight and how, or how not, those might intersect. Then on to feathers in fashion and other human uses like pens and the functions of feathers aside from flight. There are chapters devoted to colors and breeding displays. If you are into birds or evolutionary biology this book is well worth adding to your library.

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Hanson really loves playing stupid. A gene called "Sonic hedgehog" is involved in feather growth. However, apparently, Hanson thinks that genes are too complicated. Therefore, he spends pages and pages describing the history of the video game Sonic the Hedgehog, then his own personal history of

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playing this game. He goes back now to play the game some more, and we get descriptions of the game design and game play. Then in the end, of course, he concludes that the game is completely irrelevant to genes and feathers.

Arguably, this is just a sign of poor editing. But it feels almost insulting to read. And Sonic the Hedgehog isn't Hanson's only dumb diversion. Still, I did learn a few things, and the book has nicely drawn feather illustrations.

> Had da Vinci published his findings, he might have spurred a great Renaissance interest in aerodynamics and advanced the goal of human flight by centuries.

> one country dominated the ostrich business like no other. South African ostrich ranchers once kept more than a million birds in domestication, harvesting their feathers as often as twice a year. Ostrich plumes vied with wool as the country’s third largest export, behind only gold and diamonds.

> No color was more scarce in the islands than yellow, and no royal object more famous than the flowing golden cloak of King Kamehameha I. Feathers from an estimated 80,000 individuals of the now extinct Mamo Honeycreeper went into its lush weavings.

> Grebes, for example, eat large quantities of soft body feathers and also feed them to their newly hatched chicks. This habit helps protect the birds’ digestive tracts from the sharp, indigestible remains of the fish they eat—the bones collect inside a neat ball of plumes that can be safely spat up at will.

> Unlike most other feathers, filoplumes lack muscles within their follicles and cannot be adjusted or moved independently. Their role is sensory, providing the bird with information on the movement and condition of other feathers nearby. Clusters of filoplumes usually surround the base of each flight feather. They act like telltales on a sail, giving instant data on wind speed and feather position and helping the bird make fine adjustments during flight.

> The growth detail shows how barbs form in a helical fashion around the rim of the follicle collar before fusing with the solid rachis and proceeding upward

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Absolutely fascinating read about a truly incredible subject too often overlooked.

Quick read about the evolution and history of the feather, and how complex and beautiful it is, and all the purposes it has served. Fun and educational.

This is not a book about feathers. It is not a book about birds, the creatures with feathers. It is a book about the author's deep fascination with birds and his zeal for learning about feathers. How else can I describe a book that indeed gives great and often amazing insight into birds, in

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general, and feathers, in particular, while at times getting so far out in the periphery of his subject that even he, at one point, tells the reader, basically, "Whoa, let's get back on topic!" (No kidding.) Indeed, the book shifts often from one extreme of being very college classroom professorial in presentation to another extreme of a bunch of bird-watching/biology nerds in a cocktail lounge in the evening after a full day at the annual ornithology society convention -- think The Big Bang Theory guys at a Star Trek convention -- and pretty much anything in between. Will the average person learn something that will likely change forever how they view birds they may see? Almost unquestionably. Will that person also enjoy the author's many anecdotes? Some, yes, without question. Others, well, maybe if they also enjoyed reading about the vomit flavored jelly beans in Harry Potter. Me? Well, I prefer, given the option of a more -- let's say -- disciplined presentation. Am I glad I read it? Very much so.

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