ahmedabad have you ever picked up a feather and wondered to which bird it might belong the birdman of india salim ali referred to birds as feathered bipeds in his field guide the book of indian birds that statement signals the centrality of feathers in the avian storya couple of young birders have now come together to create what is perhaps the first online feather library for indian birds wwwfeatherlibrarycom did you know that the spotted owlet does not have real spots the feathers overlap each other giving the impression of round spots and are you aware that the yellowlegged buttonquail has only eight feathers in its tailour findings are based on the two buttonquails we have documented the reason behind eight tail feathers could be that they are shortdistance fliers said esha munshi an architect a birdwatcher and a founder of feather library munshi added when we studied the feathers of the indian hoopoe we were surprised to find that the distinctive crest on its head is made up not of a single row of feathers but by the interlocking of two rows of feathersone of the regional reviewers of gujarat for ebird of cornell lab of ornithology munshi is among the top 20 birders of india on ebird that distinction is based on the number of different bird species she has sighted munshi has spotted more than 1000 of the over 1350 species of birds found in india she said she got interested in feathers recently when she rescued a silverbill that was attacked by her pet cati rescued the indian silverbill during the covid19 lockdown she said the biggest feather of the bird was tinier than our smallest finger it got me interested in studying feathers but there was no such reference for indian birds she saidmunshi joined hands with sherwin everett another founder of feather library who works with jivdaya charitable trust an animal hospital in ahmedabadthe hospital receives 1500 to 2000 birds per month mostly pigeons kites and crows but also several other common and rare species said everett a number of the birds succumb to their injuries and ailments after which their bodies are sent to the local corporation for disposal he added i thought that this was a colossal pool of data just going to waste literally so we decided to use this opportunity and began documenting feathers of birds that had been declared dead by vetstogether munshi and everett decided to document feathers from dead birds noting the number of primaries secondaries tertials alulas and rectrices and creating a digital library with photographs they have collaborated with jivdaya and wildart a team of wildlife photographers with a website of 950 bird speciesthe dictionary defines a feather as one of the horny structures forming the principal covering of the birds consisting typically of a hard tubular portion attached to the body and tapering into a thinner stemlike portion bearing a series of slender barbed processes that interlock to form a flat structure on