Female tanager birds dig flamboyant males. So to build plumage that really pops with orange or red or yellow, a male has to eat fruits and absorb their carotenoids. The fancy feathers he produces then ...

MinuteEarth, which has 3.23 million subscribers, explains that all of these feathers are real bird feathers, and there are no fakes. These are inexpensive feathers sold at craft stores, but they are ...

It might seem harmless to pick up a colourful feather and take it home as a keepsake, but in many countries, including Canada, the United States, and the UK, doing so can actually be against the law.

Feathers are a sleek, intricate evolutionary innovation that makes flight possible for birds, but in addition to their stiff, aerodynamic feathers used for flight, birds also keep a layer of soft, ...

Many birds’ feathers are remarkably efficient at shedding water — so much so that “like water off a duck’s back” is a common expression. Much more unusual are the belly feathers of the sandgrouse, ...

Fossilized feathers of an extinct bird show it molted differently than modern birds. The prehistoric bird lost its feathers all at once, while many modern birds molt in waves. Regrowing feathers uses ...