Feathers

I love this cover to Thor Hanson’s book Feathers: The Evolution of a Natural Miracle. It was designed by Nicole Caputo.

Some things you’ll learn in this book: feathers pre-date birds; some dinosaurs had colored feathers; feathers are amazing at insulation and waterproofing; a peregrine has been recorded diving at 242 mph and making turns at an estimated 27Gs (humans will black-out at 9Gs); bar-headed geese migrate above 30,000 feet over the Himalayas – the temp up there can be -80F. And then there’s us: we sleep on them, wear them, write with them (or did once), fish with them, feed them to livestock and pets, use them as fertilizer, etc. In Vegas, they still adorn showgirls. Airplanes of the future may have bristly wings, like birds (feathers are not a smooth as they look), which cuts down on turbulence.

Because of waterproof contour feathers and insulating down feathers, the difference between the air temperature and the interior of a Golden-crowned kinglet, a bird that winters in the boreal forests, can be as much as 140 degrees. These tiny birds, which pass through Brooklyn during migration seasons, weigh about a fifth of an ounce each (6 grams). Some 7% of that body weight is down. Without feathers, the birds would freeze solid almost instantly.