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That's a really good point - how do they handle rain? Is there a benefit to not having water proof feathers?
by holografix 10y ago
That's a really good point - how do they handle rain? Is there a benefit to not having water proof feathers?
- foota 10y agoI think water proofing generally is done via some sort of wax like secretion, so perhaps it saves weight? edit: or at least I think leaves have wax? edit 2, citations!: I don't have access, but this link looks promising, http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v214/n5085/pdf/214318a0.pdf http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v214/n5085/pdf/214318a0... also, http://blog.galapagosecolodge.net/2014/03/frigate-birds-of-galapagos-islands.html http://blog.galapagosecolodge.net/2014/03/frigate-birds-of-g... paragraph 4 tl;dr birds have the Uropygial gland which secretes preen oil which most birds then rub over their feathers to keep the water out (the mechanism through which this keeps water out sounds somewhat contested, see wikipedia). The frigate bird has only a vestigial gland for this (sounds like the nature article suggests that the gland shrank due to behavior changes, rather than vice versa. Also sounds like the behavior changes may be due to the prey they feed off of and their habits?) Uropygial gland: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uropygial_gland https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uropygial_gland
- holografix 10y agoWow thanks for trying to find out more about this! This brings me to another question I often thought about: What's the nutritional cost of transforming food into fur or in this case wax...?
- foota 10y agoI think wax has a pretty simple structure, so probably not very high (but also a fairly high energy content? idek what I'm talking about). Feathers seem like they would be more difficult.