Why Do Birds Have Feathers?
• Feathers provide protection (from weather and injury). • Feathers serve as insulation from cold and heat. • Feathers help birds attract mates. Feathers wear out and get old so birds must replace them every so often. Birds molt once or twice a year depending on the species. When bird molts the old feathers will fall out or are pushed out by the growth of new feathers. Birds will generally molt before they mate. The new feathers look bright and attractive and help males attract a female. The starlings in these pictures show two very different plumages. The starling above is showing off its winter feathers while the bright shiny one on the right is ready to start breeding.
Billions of years ago, birds were part of the reptile family and had scales covering their body. Over the ages, the scales evolved into the feathers that help birds fly and keep them warm. Feathers come in different sizes and textures. An owl’s feathers are soft and long, so it can fly quietly but slowly. A hawk’s, however, are
Birds evolved from maniraptorian dinosaurs. Paleontologists have found that most, if not all, maniraptorian dinosaurs — as well as many other types of dinosaurs — had feathers. They almost certainly evolved for one of three things (or all of them): aiding the young in locomotion, keeping the young warm, and/or adult sexual display. It is possible that feathers were actually just a normal part of being a dinosaur. Dinosaurs aren’t extinct; they evolved into birds. Big sharp-toothed meat-eating things? Those are extinct.
