Nature’s super feather

Vanya studying a turkey vulture wing at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in Ithaca, New York. Filoplumes may be tiny, but these hairlike feathers enable nonstop flights that span thousands of miles. — Bryan Anselm/The New York Times

VANYA Gregor Rohwer slid open a drawer to reveal the rich pink wing of a roseate spoonbill, one of thousands mounted at the Cornell University Museum of Vertebrates.

He lifted a long flight feather to expose, at its base, a palm-tree-shaped strand so small it could easily be missed. For years, this feature – called a filoplume – was obscure.