| A | B |
|---|
| hatchling | Baby bird that has just hatched out. |
| Contour Feather | Long, shape giving feather with a solid vane all the way through the feather. |
| Down Feather | Short feather with only a quil, and non-interlocking barbules so it puffs out in all directions. |
| Semilplume Feather | A warming feather with a long shaft with no zippered barbules. |
| Filoplume Feather | Tiny hair like feathers that sense the position of flight feathers. |
| Bristles | Most hair like feather that looks like our eyelash hairs which are found around bird's mouth and nostrils. |
| Molting | The loss of old, worn out feathers and their replacement feathers |
| Shaft of feather | Hollow, long shaft of keratin that support the barbs. |
| Quill | The base of the shaft that attaches to the bird's body and has muscles attached as well. |
| Vane | The soft portion of the feather composed of barbs. |
| Barbules | Tiny little hairs on barbs that allow for zipping and unzipping of the barbs. |
| Preen gland | Little sac of oil at the base of a bird's tail feathers. |
| pigments | Chemicals that have specific colors |
| Melanins | Brown and black pigments |
| Carotenoids | Red, orange, pink and yellow pigments. |
| Porphyrins | Red and green pigments. |
| Iridescent | Melanins that are able to reflect several possible colors |
| Anting | When certain birds sit atop an ant hill, rubbing ants on their wings to get formic acid, which repels mites and lice. |
