Yellow Shafted Flicker feather

[BugEZ]

I found a flicker feather in my yard. It changed color from brown to yellow when I changed the orientation. I was puzzled wondering if it were iridescence of some sort. Nope, just the effect of the orientation of the barbs that extend from the quills.

The tail feathers of woodpeckers are quite stiff as they are used as a prop to support the cantilever of the bird when it clings to the side of a tree. Thus the barbs are narrow beams to stiffen them. Hope the stereos show this. Anyway, when turned so you can't see the fuzz between the barbs the feather looks very yellow. When the barbs are oriented "end on" the brown brush makes the feather look much more brown. Because the barbs are thin and wide the arc where the brown shows is quite narrow.

2x 2 by Keith Short, on Flickr

2x 1 by Keith Short, on Flickr

10 X
stereo 10X by Keith Short, on Flickr

And a photo of the feather and a shot clipped from the web of a flicker showing the feather's origin in the tail...



The 2x photos are with my slide copy lens on extension. The 10X wiht my Oly 10 using a 200mm pentax prime as the tube lense. Sterios constructed with Zerene and run through StereoPhotoMaker.

Keith

[rjlittlefield]

Very interesting. I think the last stereo pair shows the structure very well. Those yellow plates are quite narrow compared to their height -- easy to see why the appearance would change so much with angle.

...and a shot clipped from the web of a flicker showing the feather's origin in the tail...

I expect the clipped image would pass a "fair use" test, but still it's much better form to credit the source. Using Google image search, I found it at http://www.glenchilton.com/a-travellers ... -feathers/ , which in turn credits animalia-life.club .

--Rik

[Lou Jost]

Nice pictures! A bit off-topic, but I once saw a Yellow-shafted Flicker flying in its typical roller-coaster flight pattern, heading for a landing in a tree, but when it got to the tree it misjudged something and hit the trunk wrong, and it broke its neck and dropped down dead. It is the only time I have ever seen an adult bird make a fatal flight misjudgement (not counting the times when birds crash into invisible windows, which is not their fault).

[BugEZ]

Rik,

Many thanks for pointing out and attributing the origin of the flicker photo. A screw up on my part.

Lou,

How sad to see a bird come to such a tragic end. One wonders if it had a dose of ant poison.

We have a thriving ant population. Lucky flickers!

Keith