Adults and juveniles can be easily assigned to either morph based on plumage colouration [32] [35], with melanic individuals having a greater amount of eumelanic feathers (Fig. 1).
In the following analyses, we have used the mean of the right and left outermost tail feathers in statistical analyses of tail length, but for three males, tail length was based on one tail feather due to the other being broken.
While this is perhaps not a surprising conclusion based on how feathers (and especially long flight feathers) are attached to the body of birds, it is an important confirmation of this point.
Using a microscope, she could then pinpoint minute structural characteristics and identify the bird species or family based on the feathers.
From trains, modelled on kingfishers to improve energy efficiency, to carpet tiles, based on birds' feathers and geckos to reduce the use of adhesive, Benyus is building up a portfolio of successful green designs created by imitating nature, a process called biomimicry.
However, their measurements were based on the feathers as seen and did not include their putative extension into the halo.
They provide compelling evidence that the highly divergent ecotypes based on which feathers the lice exploit - body, head, wing or generalist - have evolved over and over again as new hosts with multiple vacant niches are colonized.
This line was selected for eight generations for increased feather pecking behaviour based on a social feather pecking test, but the hens showed no difference in aggressive pecking behaviour when compared to the low feather pecking line [ 27].
Phylogenetic analyses based on one mitochondrial and two nuclear genes for avian feather lice revealed a pattern of repeated adaptive divergence of microhabitat specialization in these ectoparasites.
But the maxim that who dares, wins, was proved by a black and white suit, based on a single feather, which Daniele Cavalli had photographed and then integrated digitally into a pattern, showing nature with nurture in a striking way.
