Bird Feathers & Flight

Post Contributed by Jocelyne Adkins, Program Director/Educator

-->

Beye Discovery students learned about bird anatomy and how certain characteristics allow them to fly. Bird bones are very light due to their hollow structure with “strut” like elements to make them strong. The photos below show actual specimens loaned from the Harris Education Center (Field Museum) that we shared with the students so they could feel bird bone lightness firsthand. 

Bird bone (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Bird Bone, interior view with struts (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Bird skull (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Students also learned that bird feathers are designed for flight too. Birds have 3 kinds of feathers: primary, secondary and covert. If the primary feathers (also known as flight feathers) are clipped, a bird is unable to fly. 

bird wing (Field Museum Specimen, Harris Education Center)

Each feather type has a different shape and arrangement: 

Primary feathers are long and are not symmetrical: the barbs are longer on one side of the shaft than the other. They are located on the outer wing. 

Next to the primary feathers are the secondary feathers, and they are long with barbs that are symmetrical on either side of the shaft. 

The covert feathers cover the top edge of the wing near the body and give the wing its curved shape. These feathers are short and symmetrical.

For their project, the students have depicted the different feather types, drawn on patterned papers and then painted to capture the feathery look of the barbs.

Daysha

Emory

Anika

Suzanne

Porter

Laila

Sylvia

Oliver

Leila

Heidi

Max

Hayden

Emerson

Jessica

Jessica with a negative image, produced on the under-sheet when painting her feathers

Ben

Cassie

Anika

These bird feather collages were exhibited in the main hall during the month of October. They were absolutely beautiful ~ kudos students!