What If You Only Have a Feather?

Sometimes all you need to identify a bird is a single feather. Because collecting bird feathers is prohibited in the U.S. to protect birds from poachers, start by taking a photo with a common object for scale. Then you can use online resources like the iNaturalist app or Featherbase website to help you solve the mystery. Keep your prime suspect in mind when you’re back where you found the feather and you might get to see the bird itself — feathers and all.

BirdNote^®
What If You Only Have a Feather?
Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

[Northern Flicker “pileated” call, ML 84808, 0:47-0:55]

When a bird flies off and leaves only a feather, is that one clue enough to identify the species?

The short answer is: maybe. But first, remember that unless you have special permission, collecting feathers is prohibited in the U.S. to protect birds from poachers looking for ornamental feathers. Instead, you can take a photo. Set a common item like sunglasses next to the feather to give a sense of its size.

Now, to try and ID the bird. Some species’ feathers are distinctive, like the bright yellow shafts from a Northern Flicker in the eastern US. By uploading the photo to iNaturalist, an app and website that helps people identify wildlife, you’ll get help from a hivemind of thousands of users. If enough people recognize the feather, you’re on your way to an ID.

Other resources can help, too. A website called Featherbase has guides to over seventeen hundred species’ feathers. Photo references like this can get you closer to solving the mystery.

Keep your prime suspect in mind when you’re back where you found the feather and you might get to see the bird itself — feathers and all.

[Northern Flicker “pileated” call, ML 84808, 0:47-0:55]

For BirdNote, I’m Michael Stein.

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Senior Producer: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Flicker ML63068 recorded by Dave Herr.

BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote August 2024 Narrator: Michael Stein

ID# feather-11-2024-11-11 feather-11