Found Feather

I was out in the yard picking up sticks and sweeping the deck on a sunny afternoon….and found a feather in a pile of tulip poplar seeds. There were no other feathers around so maybe this one fell out as part of a molt rather than a predator/prey interaction. The tip was in relatively good shape, so it probably had joined the pile of seeds sometimes after the last rain. I took it inside to photograph.

The feather had a lot of down near the base.  Using my 65x magnifying lens with a light clipped to my phone – it is easy to see the structure of the fluff!

The part of the feather near the tip had even more structure although there are already parts of the feather than have split apart…and small debris. If the feather were still attached, the bird would be preening to correct both imperfections. Once a feather falls out, it doesn’t last long in the natural world.