Form and function
The structures associated with flight, even if they are vestigial or specialized for terrestrial or aquatic locomotion, easily distinguish birds from other animals. Whereas various skeletal and internal features are diagnostic of birds, feathers are unique to and present on all birds. Also unique to birds is their sound-producing organ, the syrinx. This avian analog to the voice box (larynx) is most highly developed in the songbirds. The syrinx is located where the trachea (windpipe) divides into the bronchial tubes. Sound is produced by airflow that vibrates membranes formed from part of the trachea, bronchi, or both.
Feathers
Like the scales of reptiles, and those on the feet of birds, feathers are made of keratin, a fibrous protein also found in hair. Feathers vary considerably in structure and function. Contour feathers form most of the surface of the bird, streamlining it for flight and often waterproofing it. The basal portion may be downy and thus act as insulation. The major contour feathers of the wing (remiges) and tail (rectrices) and their coverts function in flight. Contour feathers grow in tracts (pterylae) separated by bare areas (apteria) and develop from follicles in the skin.
The typical contour feather consists of a tapered central shaft, the rachis, with paired branches (barbs) on each side. An unbranched basal section of the rachis is called the calamus, part of which lies beneath the skin. The barbs, in turn, have branches, the barbules. The barbules on the distal side of each barb have hooks (hamuli) that engage the barbules of the next barb. The barbs at the base of the vane are often plumaceous—i.e., lacking in hamuli and remaining free of each other. In many birds each contour feather on the body (but rarely on the wings) is provided with a complex branch, the aftershaft, or afterfeather, that arises at the base of the vane. The aftershaft has the appearance of a second, smaller feather, growing from the base of the first. Down feathers have loose-webbed barbs, all rising from the tip of a very short shaft. Their function is insulation, and they may be found in both pterylae and apteria in adult birds. They also constitute the first feather coat of most young birds. Filoplumes are hairlike feathers with a few soft barbs near the tip. They are associated with contour feathers and may be sensory or decorative in function. Bristlelike, vaneless feathers occur around the mouth, eyes, and nostrils of birds. They are especially conspicuous around the gape (corners of the mouth) of birds that catch insects in the air. Some bristles function as eyelashes on ground-dwelling birds, and the bristles over the nostrils may serve as filters.
Molting
The contour feathers are shed and replaced (molted) at least once a year, usually just after the breeding season. In addition, many birds have at least a partial molt before the breeding season. A typical series of molts and plumages would be juvenal plumage, postjuvenal (also called first prebasic) molt, first winter (or first basic) plumage, first prenuptial (or pre-alternate) molt, first nuptial (or alternate) plumage, first postnuptial (first annual, or second prebasic) molt, second winter (or basic) plumage, etc. Molt of the remiges and rectrices usually occurs as part of the annual molt and can be serial, from the innermost feather out (centrifugal), from the outermost in (centripetal), or simultaneous. Normally the process is symmetrical between the right and left sides.
Flight, so characteristic of birds, is maintained during the molt in most species by a gradual replacement of the flight feathers. However, ducks and geese, some rails and loons, and auks shed all of their flight feathers at one time, immediately after the nesting season. Not until these feathers are replaced are the birds able to fly again. Most of these are birds that find their food by walking or swimming, as would be expected. Some ducks living in the marshes become very shy and retiring at this season, skulking in the reeds, but geese nesting in the Arctic barrens continue to walk about over the tundra, feeding. In the hornbills of Africa and Asia, only females lose the flight and tail feathers at the same time. During this time they stay in the nest until the feathers grow out again, being fed by the males.
Colour
Colour in birds is caused by pigments and structure. Buffs, red browns, dark browns, and blacks are caused by melanins, pigments synthesized by the bird and laid down in granules. Yellows, oranges, and reds come from carotenoid or lipochrome pigments; these originate at least in part from the food and are diffused in the skin and feathers. Porphyrin feather pigments occur in birds but less frequently than melanins and carotenoids. Blue colours in feathers are structural, based on a thin, porous layer of keratin overlying melanin pigment. Most greens result from the addition of yellow pigment to the structural blue colour. Iridescent colours result from the thinly laminated structure of the barbules and are enhanced by underlying melanin deposits.
Other external features
Birds’ feet are covered with scales like those of reptiles. The scales are occasionally shed, but the timing of this molt is not known. The toes are tipped with claws, and vestigial claws are not infrequently found on the tips of the first two digits of the wing.
The bill is covered with a sheet of keratin, the rhamphotheca, which in petrels and a few other birds is divided into plates. In birds that probe for food (kiwis, woodcocks, etc.), many sensory pores are found near the tip of the bill. Both melanins and carotenoids are found in the rhamphotheca and in the scales of the feet.
The skin of a bird is almost without glands. The important exception is the preen gland, which lies on the rump at the base of the tail. The secretion of this gland contains approximately one-half lipids (fats and oils) and is probably important in dressing and waterproofing the plumage. In a few birds, the secretion has a strong, offensive odour. Some birds, in which the gland is small or absent, have a specialized type of feather (powder down) that grows continuously and breaks down into a fine powder, believed to be used in dressing the plumage.