Feathers

I read the book Feathers by biologist Thor Hanson while on my trip to Nebraska to see the cranes. This was the perfect book on a birding trip.  When I had questions like, "Are cranes the only birds that dance?" or "What birds besides cranes have featherless heads?" I would read the answers in Feathers at the end of the day.  The author of this book did a great job of mixing facts with story.  And he had fascinating facts such as for each person on earth, there are 50 birds.  I am outnumbered 50-1.  Amazing.  Also the shortest feather is as large as the tip of a pencil.  How long is the longest feather?  Sit down when you read this.  The longest feather is 36 feet long and it's on the tail of a ornamental Japanese fowl.  Thirty six feet.  Just picture the size of that chicken coop!  Holy shamoley.  As you would expect he had chapters on quills for writing, feathers in clothing (and a whole section on the Las Vegas showgirls), evolution of feathers, the ability to fly, and the most expensive cargo on the Titanic (feathers).  He wrote at length about the Archeopteryx.  I remember writing a report on the Archeopteryx when I was in third grade and I've been fascinated ever since.  He had charts and graphs and a huge appendix.  For a non-fiction book this was easy to read and over before I was ready.