An up-close take a look at the stomach feathers of a desert hen reveals complicated coiled constructions that take up and entice water, permitting Namaqua sandgrouse to move water inside their plumage.
Male Namaqua sandgrouse (Pterocles namaqua) make each day journeys to watering holes in South Africa, the place they soak their decrease feathers in water. The water-logged birds then fly as much as 30 kilometres to their thirsty younger, which suck water from their father’s feathers. Researchers first found that these feathers had coiled filaments known as barbules greater than 50 years in the past. But nobody had taken a better look.
To see the particular …