Morphological basis for the waterproof characteristic of bird plumage

Shu-hui Yang; Yan-chun Xu; Da-wei Zhang

doi:10.1007/s11676-006-0039-8

Journal of Forestry Research ›› 2006, Vol. 17 ›› Issue (2) : 163 -166. DOI: 10.1007/s11676-006-0039-8

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Morphological basis for the waterproof characteristic of bird plumage

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Abstract

A surface variable, density of water-feather touching points (D_p) was proposed in this paper to express surface property of water repellency of contour feather. Tests in 29 species using breast contour feathers indicated that D_p was small in tericolous species, medium in wading and diving species, large in swimming species, with only a few exceptions. This implied that birds achieve appropriate D_p by optimizing the microstructure of feather to meet the requirement of water repellency. Therefore, D_p was a morphological marker linking structure and function of feather in studies of adaptive evolution of birds.

Keywords

Plumage / Water repellency / Rough surface / Microstructure / Water touching point density

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Shu-hui Yang, Yan-chun Xu, Da-wei Zhang. Morphological basis for the waterproof characteristic of bird plumage. Journal of Forestry Research, 2006, 17(2): 163-166 DOI:10.1007/s11676-006-0039-8

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