Blog # 276 The Feather Game Part l

 The Salt Point nestlings’ have reached a notable benchmark—the growth of their adult  feathers. Both their large size and beginning adult feathers can be seen at 3:34” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7LV-DzlE20&t=222s on the Salt Point Osprey Nest  Cam. You can also see the white sheaths of Hope’s emerging tail and wing feathers in  the photo below of the chick defecating over the side of the nest. 

Hope defecating. Note the white sheaths containing the emerging tail and wind feathers. Screen shot from the Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. 

Their feathers grow within a covering called a white sheath, where it develops its central  shaft, color, and pattern. Blood vessels nourish the growing feather until it is fully  formed, at which point the vessels wither away. The sheath bursts open and falls off, or  the bird removes the sheath with its beak. The feathers then unfurl from the packaging  and harden. 

Parts of a feather, courtesy of Encyclopedia Britannica. 

The diagram of a bird below shows little pits in the skin called follicles, which form rows of feather tracts. Feathers grow out of these tracks and overlap each other so that no  skin shows. This feather arrangement optimizes the birds function with less feathers 

Feather patterns on a bird, courtesy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. 

by drastically reducing their total weight. As the feathers wear, they are replaced by  molting. While scientists do not understand the full function of the variations of tract  patterns, they use them to determine how to classify birds.  

Birds must spend a lot of time preening, combing their feathers into place, removing  ectoparasites, and spreading protective oils. For Ospreys, spreading oils is extremely  important to keep the bird waterproof. Watch them preening at  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49Sw1TVhKuA. When the nestlings start preening,  it’s a bit like a toddler teething. The chicks start preening as their feathers begin to push 

Both Lucky (front) and Hope are preening their itchy emerging feathers next to Ophelia. Note the white  sheaths that house their new itchy feathers. Screen shot from the Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. 

out, which is presumably something akin to an itchy process. Once their feathers  emerge the bird spends a lot of pushing, brushing, and running their beaks through  them to keep them in good order and flight ready.  

Birds can move each of its feathers independently, using tiny muscles in the skin. This  helps a bird place its wing feathers, for example, into position to make a turn or to slow  down. The Ospreys can also raise and lower their nape feathers (hackles) as a sign of  aggression. 

Immature birds have much softer feathers than mature birds. Some speculate this offers  immature birds need more cushioning against bumps and tumbles. Immature birds do  not preen nearly as well as mature birds do and, therefore, display more feather  breakage or feathers in need of straightening.  

An Osprey is covered with a variety of feather types, each modified to serve a certain  function. Vaned exterior feathers cover the whole body and give the bird its streamlined,  aerodynamic shape and color. They include both the flight feathers and the tail feathers. Down feathers are the fluffy feathers that grow underneath the vaned feathers near the  skin. Down traps warm air, insulating the bird from cold and heat. The reason why down  is so fluffy is because the feathers lack the barbules needed for a smooth surface.  

Feathers are some of the lightest, most flexible, and strongest materials in nature. Flight  feathers, necessary to the Osprey’s existence, are extra strong. Feathers can withstand  raging winds, rain, snowstorms, high doses of sunlight, and collisions with tree  branches. If bent, a feather shaft will straighten back up. Although feathers are light, an  Osprey’s plumage weighs more than its skeleton.  

Flight feathers are the largest, most substantial, and identifiable of the an Osprey’s  vaned or contour feathers. Below are photos of the primary and secondary wing  feathers and tail feathers of an adult Osprey. 

Courtesy of The Feather Atlas Feather Identification and Scans, US Fish & Wildlife Service.

Courtesy of The Feather Atlas Feather Identification and Scans, US Fish & Wildlife Service. 

An Osprey’s brown feathers vary in their amount of chocolate brown pigment, created  by melanin, w. Melanin absorbs certain wavelengths of light and reflects the Osprey’s  characteristic brown, chestnut, and near black tones perceived by humans and gives  

strength to the feathers as well. The white feathers lack all pigment. As a result, the  brown and white feathers, which critical in flying, are stronger than the white downy  ones.  

Eyes to the sky! 

Candace 

Candace E. Cornell  

Friends of Salt Point  

Lansing, NY 

cec222@gmail.com

Read!  

On Osprey Time (blog) 

Ospreys of Salt Point 

Explore! 

Cayuga Lake Osprey Trail   

Watch!  

Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Blog #481 Sunshine at Last!

Image
  Last week’s 2 week old chicks. Now they look completely different, courtesy of Facebook. Meteorologists report this is the 6 th  day of sun in all of May with more rain in the forecast. This is good for the plants but potentially damaging to the Ospreys. Foul weather rots eggs and makes hunting difficult to impossible at a time when the hatchlings are most vulnerable to the starvation, cold, and predation. Despite the challenges of fishing in windy, rainy conditions, Orpheus succeeded in keeping the family fed by catching small, nearshore fish and making up for deficiencies with large trout whenever there was a break in the weather. A foggy morning feeding the 2 ½ week-old chicks, Salt Point Osprey Nest Cam. The 3 week-old chicks in their reptilian phase, courtesy of YouTube. Oakley, the eldest chick, just turned two-weeks old and is passing into the Reptilian Phase,  where the now darker, scaly chicks. In this transitional phase Oakley’s buff down is quickly replaced w...
Read more

Blog #482 Where Ospreys are Starving

Image
Male Osprey landing a beauty, enough to feed the entire family trout, courtesy of Patrick Marshall. Ospreys of the Cayuga Lake Osprey colony, live in the stunning heart of New York’s Finger Lakes of a terrific about centered on Cayuga Lake may lull us into complacent thinking that all is well in their world. Life for Ospreys near Cayuga is certainly good for our in this inland colony with lots to eat and seeming endless nesting possibilities, but an ecological tragedy is in the making not far away. Osprey chicks are starving and whole colonies collapsing in the Chesapeake Bay region, home of the world’s highest concentration of breeding Ospreys (until recently estimated at 10,000 breeding pairs). The tragedy is caused by a sharp decline of their dietary staple, menhaden, called “the most important fish in the sea” by author H. Bruce Franklin. Ospreys, striped bass, bluefish, weakfish, whales, and a myriad of other coastal and marine species dependent on menhaden for food are all declin...
Read more

Blog #461 Sneak Peek at Osprey Season 2024

Image
  Orpheus (L) and Ursula at their Salt Point Nest March 26, courtesy of Cindy Sedlacek. The following is a sneak peek at what this Osprey summer will entail. Our northeastern Ospreys return to their breeding habitats just after the early spring thaw. This year’s first Osprey was seen in Cayuga Lake Basin on March 15, an early date many attribute to  the mild winter. Most nest occupants will have returned to their nests and reunited with their mates by this weekend. These returning Ospreys have just completed their 2,000–4,000-mile migrations from their wintering areas along the coasts of South America and in the wild Amazonian tropics. The range of landscapes that a cosmopolitan Osprey can experience in its lifetime is staggering. In general, the older breeding males arrive on their nests followed by their mates in a few days. After that first wave of older Ospreys arrive, unmated adults and second-year birds migrating north for the first time after spending two years in the S...
Read more