This is Birdman.

Birds are the only living group of animals with feathers.

Some have a lot, and some have a lot more.

Generally speaking, the bigger the bird, the higher the number.

In fact, someone did actually take the time to count the feathers on a tundra swan.

And the number they came up with was 25,216.

At least 80% of those are on the swans' long neck.

Swans are huge birds with lots of feathers to be sure, but it appears that penguins are

more likely to claim the current feather record because they have lots of small feathers

all over their bodies.

And some penguins, like swans, are pretty big.

The largest penguin species is the emperor penguin.

One project counted around 80,000 feathers on a single bird that's nearly 60 per square

inch, keeping the penguin insulated and waterproof in one of the harshest climates on Earth.

At the other end of the spectrum, there's the hummingbird.

Some species have fewer than 1,000 feathers, but the most feathered creature ever?

It may have been one of the bird's ancestors, a dinosaur.

For Bird Note, I'm Mary McCann.

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