ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Flight feather

Okay kiddo, so you know how birds have feathers to help them fly? Well, there's a special kind of feather that is really important when it comes to flying - it's called a flight feather.

Picture a bird's wing - it's got lots of feathers sticking out of it, right? Well, some of those feathers are really big and strong, and they're the flight feathers. These are the feathers that help the bird lift off the ground and soar through the sky.

Now, flight feathers aren't like other feathers - they're more rigid and stiff. They also have a special shape that helps them work better for flying. If you look at a flight feather from the side, it's thicker on one end and thinner on the other, kind of like a teardrop shape. This helps the feather create lift when the bird flaps its wings.

Flight feathers are also different from other feathers because they grow differently. Most feathers grow straight out from the bird's skin, but flight feathers grow at an angle. This makes them stick out sort of sideways from the wing, which helps the bird control its flight better.

So, in summary, flight feathers are the big, strong feathers on a bird's wing that help it fly. They're stiff and have a special shape to create lift, and they grow at an angle to help the bird control its flight. Pretty neat, huh?