How many feathers has a bird?

It is an old poser. A basic rule seems to be, not surprisingly, that the larger the bird, the more numerous its feathers. A dairyman once counted all the feathers on a Plymouth Rockhen. there were 8,325. Another investigator, patiently plucking a whistling swan, amassed a record of 25,216 feathers, 80 per cent of which came from the head and the extremely long neck. A ruby-throated humming bird examined by Alexander Wetmore of the Smithsonian Institution showed a low count of 940, yet the tiny bird had many more feathers per unit of body surface than did the swan. Songbirds run between 1,100 and 4,600 feathers, depending on the species and the counts are remarkably consistent for any one species, although there is often a seasonal difference.