Why Birds Face Into The Wind

Why birds face into the wind. Imagine yourself a bird. Birds fly. Sometimes. Or swim. Or strut. Or run, like fast and funky, watch a chicken stretch its neck out and make for the hills. Or a roadrunner, all linear and streaked out, beak into the future, legs racing aft. They always face into the wind. The wind can be nothing to mess with. A tornado? Or a hurricane? A dust devil? A cyclone? A williwaw? A feather is a delicate structure, pluck one, with permission. A hollow central collagen shaft branches out then branches out again and again and maybe again and again till all there is left are a multitude of soft downy fibrils. It won’t fare well at the higher end of the Beaufort scale. You can’t knock a person over with a feather, though it’s been tried, and I’ll try it again. Can’t knock hardly anything over with a feather. That’s why feather dusters are made out of them. Scoots dust right along but safe around the Ming vase. You ever heard of an anvil duster? Feathers sprout backwards from the head of the bird, layering subsequently over each layer behind all along the body, the wings and on into the tail. Feathers on a male bird have pointed ends. Feathers on a female bird are rounded at the ends, it’s true, ask an ornithopter, or a fly fisherman. Throughout the animal kingdom males are generally more angular, females more curvy and rounded. (That’s a salient tip for artists.) Even a female porcupine is safer to be around than a male. Birds face into the wind for three main reasons. First, a bird, with it’s acute vision, likes to see what’s coming. Second, it is easier to take off into, and land, into the wind. Third, and lastly, birds are very conscientious about their grooming. A bird facing the wind looks sleek and trim. A bird with its back to the wind and every feather ruffled looks like a remnant puffed explosion. Birds are vain, your average bird has a keen sense of preen and sleek. Now you know.