Types of Feathers

Flight

• Flight feathers are the long quills people are most familiar with. They have colored bristles called vanes coming out of a hollow shaft that cuts the feather unevenly in two. Flight feathers are found only on the wings and tail.

Contour

• Contour feathers are the most outermost feathers, and therefore the most visible, giving birds their shape and color. Their strength and stiffness supports birds during flight. Contour feathers lay on top of one another like shingles, causing rain to roll off them, keeping them warm and dry at all times. Each one is controlled by a separate muscle, allowing birds to easily keep them in good condition.

Down and Semiplume

• Down feathers have no to little shaft, which accounts for their softness and fluffiness. Their primary function is to keep birds warm by creating puffy tangles of air pockets on their bodies.

  Like down, semiplume feathers are very soft, but like contour and flight, they have well-formed shafts. Semiplumes grow underneath contours and help birds keep warm and maintain their smooth, aerodynamic shape.

Bristle and Filoplume

• Bristle feathers are basically very small and highly specialized contour feathers. Bristles grow around the beaks of insect-eating birds to help them funnel their prey; they also grow around the eyes as eyelashes. They may be sensitive enough to act like whiskers. Filoplumes are the simplest feathers and incredibly small. In a sense, filoplumes keep track of the other kinds of feathers. Attached to nerve endings rather than muscles like other feathers, they send flight, insulation and preening messages to the brain.