Plumage

[Jiff]

hi guy's and gals,
today while cleaning the avery i picked up two flight feathers to store away, after clearing any debry from the mew and washing down her perches, i sat in the garden with a cuppa, i was idoly toying with one of the feathers,when certain comments about the durability of the harris' plumage started popping into my head, i held one of the feathers flat and decided to see how far it would bend before it would break,i started to apply light pressure to the tip and bend it downward,however the feather refused to bend down and instead in every attempt bent left or right, then i decided to try bending it left or right and in any direction it would bend well past 90 degrees before breaking,with a bit of imagination you can imagine the type of griefe the bird would have to give itself in order to damage plumage on anysort of regular basis, is this charachteristic just with the harris' or are all birds feathers made like this, as this is my first ever torsion experiment with feathers i have no comparisons as yet but i intend to carry out more tests next week to find different carachteristics of differant birds feathers, if i was a student i could probably get a few k funding to report my findings.

best regards to you all
from a very bored
jiff

[Ben C]

Gawd mate you are desperate to pay them ****ers eh! :) :).....I know nothing about other hawks, but Hollinshead says the plumage is 'bombproof'. Gotta be all that hot hot heat and cool, cold nights.

[Moritz]

Is there actualy a way to get the plumage of HH more water proof?

Moritz

[Jiff]

i'm actualy toying with the idea of using a none toxic bath adative which we used for pigeons to enhance the natural water repelant nature, it can also be used in a spray is totaly safe but weather or not it will make a differance is another mater as the harris' seem to have little or no water repelant properties.

[ColdZero]

Harris hawks have softer weathers because they are from a warm climate, and a gos has more brittle feathers...i know this but don't understand. Why would you need softer feathers in a warm climate? Or am i completely wrong and gos' have harder feathers to cut through wind better? but then why wouldn't harris have that :shock: ...i confuse myself many times a day.

[KevGem1]

sounds like you have got an awful amount of time on your hands their jiff although i found it very interesting i think you need to find your self something to do or your in danger of losing your marbles mate.i have always thought its very dangerous to ponder to much as i always end up buying things for my birds that i dont really need and getting my self in trouble with the wife.(just having a joke with you mate :wink: )all the best KEV.
ps. isnt it funny how you start thinking of things to do to occupy your self when your waiting for your bird to moult or the season to start again.

[Jiff]

i've done all i can today to try and stimulate some sort of excitement,i take my dog out about 7.30 which is great he realy is comming on to voice,hand and whistle commands,i aint started real training yet as i don't want to sicken him off,so 8.30 i start the clean up op',chipmonks first then ferrets then the bird,i usualy have a snack and a cuppa,then some tidying up in the garden(got rained off today) which is why i've been sat here most of it, the dog gets another jaunt out,and then i look elsewhere for stimuli, but i always end up where i am now 12 cans and babbling on. :lol: :lol:

[Bubo]

Hi jiff, i also study feathers and have from many angles and i have never thought of this one!! very interesting. I will let you know what i find out. Here is another question for you hawkers and falconers. owl feathers tend to grow in length each year does this happen to the hawks and falcons?
bubo

[North East Harris Hawker]

jiff, i have a load of time off from work coming up, gonna have a barby round mine, you can bring dawn along while we baffle ourselves with feathers and beer, 11th and 12th or 18th and 19th... you choose

[RabbitHawker]

hawk and falcon feathers tend to be longer in the immature plumage, and shortee as adult, the lonher softer ones are for learning to fly as juveniles.
In Nick Fox's book Understanding BOP he describes using silicone spray on his falcons to improve the water resistance, I have been doing this cardfully with my cast of HH, it makes a huge difference, but must be done carefully outside.

[Bubo]

thanks rabbithawker, of course the hawks and falcons have to do things differently :roll: :P hehehe