Fun Fact! Owls can't fly when wet. They evolved their feathers in a way that they have silent flight but become unusable when wet. They have to dry out before they can fly again.
Fun Fact! Owls can't fly when wet. They evolved their feathers in a way that they have silent flight but become unusable when wet. They have to dry out before they can fly again.
Fun fact! The reason for this is their plumage, especially on the torso and wing area (except flight feathers), are mostly comprised of down feathers, which doesn't have interlocking mechanism that repels water. They evolved these tufty feathers to 'cancel' noise generated from their flight, essentially by 'breaking down' the sound into smaller portions that gets absorbed.
It's quite hard to explain, but the general idea is that one solid surface will generate more resistance than a surface separated into multiple flexible endings: each endings could bend and disperse that resistance so it will be dispersed evenly into smaller amounts, which also happens with drag (air resistance) and sound.
