As part of the feather study, I documented the bristle feathers of each species with some interesting results.
A great article on bristle feathers:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/joa.13188
Abert’s Towhee Bristle Feather
ABTO, Melozone aberti
Close-up of Abert’s Towhee bristle feathers
Two types of bristles were found.
Unbranched bristles on the left, semi-bristle on the right.
Very few unbranched bristles were seen.
Curve-billed Thrasher Bristle Feather
CBTH, Toxostoma curvirostre
Close-up of Curve-billed Thrasher bristles.
Only semi-bristles were found.
Ring-necked Pheasant Bristle Feather
RNEP, Phasianus colchicus
There were bristle like feathers found under the eye.
These feathers were less than 1/4″ long.
Note the top of each feather looks shaggy.
A look at 300X magnification shows some type of growth reminiscent of a filoplume. The vane was not as delicate as found on a filoplume.
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