GFF logo







   

The nature of feather construction

Stages of plumage

A bird passes through various distinct stages of plumage. The plumage of the nestling stage is mostly down and contour feathers which plays a role primarily of warmth and concealment.
There may also be an intermediate nestling stage with yet a different plumage. The adult may have different stages of plumage such as immature, full adult, pre-nuptial, and courtship.

Male to female can be quite different, especially in the adult. Some immature birds take on the appearance of a mature female (i.e., some cockatoos and parrots.)

For the fly tier this can be of importance since some feathers in a fly may be obtainable only from an adult male, an adult female, an immature male and/or female, either the adult female or an immature bird, or perhaps any of these.

For example in The Salmon Fly, George Kelson's dressings for "The Silver Spectre" and "Prince's Mixture" call for the use of Black Cockatoo's tail. Experience teaches that the feather of choice is only found on female or immature male Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo mottled orange, black and yellow center tails. A mature male has completely different black-red-black center tails. Then in Francis Francis' A Book on Angling another dressing may simply read "Black Cockatoo or any other black feather." Here the feather becomes more obvious and might be either a strip from the black portion of an adult male Red-Tailed Black Cockatoo's tail, or better yet the all black tail of an adult male Palm Cockatoo.

<<< Previous page (The wing feathers) Next page (Summation) >>>


User comments
From: terrence whitney · cedar_ridge05·at·hotmail.com
Submitted July 1st 2008

Hi hello there i'm a native from U.S.A. i just have a question what if i native wants tail feathers from these cockatoo for ceremonial purpose can it be send to or not .......?


Want to comment this page? Fill out the form below.
Comment
Only comments
in English
are accepted!
Your name Your email
Notify me on new comments to this article on the above email-address.
You don't have to comment to start or stop notifications.
We excuse for any errors or inconvenience caused by this service, which has new features still in an experimental state. In case of faults, please notify Martin at martin@globalflyfisher.com, and explain the problem, and we will try to fix it as soon as possible. Thanks for your patience

All comments will be screened by the GFF staff before publication.
No HTML, images, ads or links, please - we do not publish such comments...
And only English language comments will be published.
Name and email is optional but recommended.
The email will be shown in a disguised form in the final comment to protect you against spam
You can see other public comments on this page

 
Did you find the above interesting?
People who looked at the above also looked at:

Tie Better

Section: Improve your fly tying and learn new, neat tricks with materials

Flatwings

One style of streamer that is very effective here in Maine in the smaller casting sizes, is the flatwing streamer. The feature that defines this style, the flat wing, normally consists of a flank feather from some species of duck tied flat on top of the hook, instead of in the classic "upright" manner that the classic New England Streamer patterns specify.

Tour de France

GFF partner Martin Joergensen has let one of his favorite sports events, the bicycling race Tour de France, inspire a way of tying flies. He argues why tying many identical flies can be a good thing - and can be better than tying many different flies.

Hyperclomplete guide to fly tying

There are many intended uses for this guide, namely as reference to ensure you have a fairly complete compendium as to what you will need to get started in flytying or to use when dropping the perfect holiday gift hint. But more importantly, it is meant for the budding fly tyer, in hopes that the years of wisdom gained through trial and error from myself and my tying buddies will steer the newcomer down the right path

Better-Winged Olives

A recent tying binge left me with a few thoughts on how to tie a quicker and better blue-winged olive mayfly. The ideas aren't necessarily new, but they certainly are worth sharing.
A few random articles for your entertainment