18 September 2025
Once I visited Chook Lab’s Hays Woods banding web site on Tuesday, I used to be excited to launch an American redstart after she was banded, weighed and measured. Earlier than I let her go I took an excellent take a look at her face and was stunned to see she had rictal bristles round her beak. On cats we’d name them “whiskers.”
Rictal bristles are stiff, modified bristle feathers that develop on the base of the birds beak — on the gape, or the nares (nostrils), the lores, or beneath the beak. They could or might not have barbs. They don’t seem to be like different feathers.
Years in the past I’d heard that rictal bristles have been used to assist seize flying-insect meals however experiments have proven that’s not the case.
Research [published in SORA] have been finished the place the bristles of [willow] flycatcher have been eliminated or have been taped down. Neither of these actions adversely affected the birds’ capacity to seize prey, indicating that the rictal bristles don’t support in prey seize. In these research the flycatchers that had their rictal bristles taped down or eliminated had extra particles from their insect prey land on their eyes.
— Mia McPherson: Willow Flycatcher Up Shut – What Are Rictal Bristles?
Now that the meals seize concept has been thrown out, new research are wanting into the evolutionary origin of avian facial bristles — what number of birds have them? Different research try to parse out the feathers’ function. Some bristles might shield the eyes or nostril. Some could also be tactile, similar to cats’ whiskers. Some are a thriller.
And that’s the place redstarts are available in; their bristles made me marvel. Listed below are higher seems at their faces.
Why do American redstarts have rictal bristles? Extra research wanted.
