{"id":801705,"date":"2026-10-13T23:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801705\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T23:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T23:02:13","slug":"country-diary-the-story-of-birds-starts-with-their-feathers-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/801705\/","title":{"rendered":"Country diary: The story of birds starts with their feathers | Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

On my walk along the towpath<\/a>, I\u00a0pick up a small grey feather. It\u2019s a flight feather<\/a>, probably from the wing of a feral pigeon<\/a>. I\u00a0stroke it absently as I watch the birds that are swimming on the river\u2019s surface. Steeped in autumn sunshine, the different species are also feathered with other seasons. Summer is in the fuzzy down of a late-hatched moorhen chick. Winter gleams in the white heads of the \u201cblack-headed\u201d gulls. And, while a mallard<\/a>\u2019s emerald-green head is, as yet, tatty as old velvet, his crisply curled drake\u2019s tails herald the coming spring.<\/p>\n

If the story of birds is told in their plumage, then moult<\/a> \u2013 the shedding and regrowth of feathers \u2013 is the turn of a page. The moorhen chick reminds me that the first chapter is about keeping warm<\/a>. I tuck a strand of hair behind my ear, almost tucking the pigeon feather in as well. While our hair and birds\u2019 feathers <\/a>are both made of keratin<\/a>, they differ in how they grow. In essence, hair extends as a single linear thread, whereas down feathers emerge frothing in all directions. As a fledgling matures, its outer feathers then lengthen, with a central shaft supporting branches that can flatten out and zip together to make a smooth surface.<\/p>\n

The evolution<\/a> of that surface wrote a new chapter in the story of birds.<\/p>\n

My thoughts drift to the bird-sized\u00a0dinosaurs<\/a> that were among the first feathered animals<\/a>. Initially, none of those creatures<\/a> could fly. But\u00a0their feathers<\/a> could make a palette for a gaze that appreciated beauty in choosing a mate. A bird\u2019s eye still has that gaze, one enthralled\u00a0by pattern and contrast, colour and shine. An eye for the mallard\u2019s gorgeous breeding plumage, and the\u00a0dark courtship mask of the black-headed gull<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing. Because feathers moult, they can be changed. They change many times over a bird\u2019s lifetime to convey its sex, maturity and season. And they have changed over millions of years. I pocket my little flight feather. A deep truth<\/a> of the story of birds, is that it tells of how beauty grew wings.<\/p>\n

Under the Changing Skies: The Best of the Guardian\u2019s Country Diary, 2018-2024, is available now at guardianbookshop.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On my walk along the towpath, I\u00a0pick up a small grey feather. It\u2019s a flight feather, probably from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":801706,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[59,90,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-801705","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-gb","tag-science","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801705","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801705"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801705\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/801706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801705"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801705"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801705"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}