This TED Talk features wildlife apologist and nature photographer Washington Wachira, recorded live at TED Global 2017.

With me here today, I brought something beautiful.

This is a feather from one of the most beautiful birds we have in Kenya, the crested guinea fowl.

But this feather is more than just that.

If you've taken time when you're outdoors to look at the feathers around you,

you'll have noticed that there's this huge variety of different sizes, shapes, and even colors.

The feather is one of the most astonishing pieces of technology invented by the natural world.

And for centuries, this feather has helped birds to keep dry,

to keep warm, and even power of light.

Only one section of the tree of life can actually make a feather.

Among all the world's animals, birds are the only ones who can make something like what I'm holding today.

I personally have given them a nickname, and I like to call them the feather makers. It is the major

difference between birds and any other animals we have on earth, and if you can't make a feather,

you cannot call yourself a bird. For us humans who are earthbound, birds represent freedom. This feather has enabled birds to conquer gravity and take to the air in an extraordinary way. Don't you sometimes wish you could fly like a bird?

Birds are my passion, and I want to change the way each one of you thinks about them.

The easiest reason I love them so much is because they are beautiful.

There are 10,000 species in the world, and each one of them is uniquely beautiful.

Birds are amazing, and this talk is dedicated to all the birds of the world.

Indeed, these birds have been part of our lives and cultures all over the world for centuries.

And every society has a story about birds.

You'll probably have had childhood stories of different birds and how they relate with man.

I personally recently learned that our human ancestors would follow flocks of vultures,

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