A new study of ancient feathers adds weight to the theory that primitive birds — close relatives of feathered dinosaurs — were far less versatile fliers than their modern descendants.

Bird Wing Anatomy The average bird wing is a remarkably complicated thing. The bone-and-muscle part is relatively small, and most of the visible surface area is composed only of strong feathers.

Bostwick found the answer when she experimented with unattached wing feathers. She could feel a kinked wing feather catch on ridges when it scraped against a neighboring feather’s shaft.

What determines how big a flying bird can be? The answer, in part, is the time it takes for the creatures to replace their feathers, researchers have found. The study, published Tuesday in the ...

PigeonBot has a wrist and finger, too, decked out with 40 feathers—20 per wing—gathered from domestic pigeons called squab, reports Rob Verger for Popular Science.

Feather colour might make a difference to flight efficiency Dark feathers may help birds fly more efficiently. They heat up the animals’ wings and the surrounding air, which might help increase ...

Wildlife rehabilitators help wild raptors wing it by implanting new feathers—sometimes from other bird species.

Feathers contain a ‘natural Velcro’ of tiny hooked hairs which lock together as the bird opens its wings, creating a fixed, sturdy shape, rather than simply overlapping, researchers have found.

The crested pigeon, found in Australia, has a modified wing feather that helps produce an alarm signal sound to warn other birds when there's trouble.

A new robotic bird made with real pigeon feathers is the first robot that can change the shape of its wings like a bird, by fanning its feathers out or folding them closer together. Lentink Lab ...