The nature of feather construction

Intro

By Wayne Luallen We have all read fly patterns that refer to quills, barbs, barbules, fibers, shafts, stems, vanes and so forth, but when we read these terms do we know what they have reference to? This article sets all these terms and many more straight. Contents 1  We need to have standards 2  To whet the appetite 3a Feather Anatomy 101, a 3b Feather Anatomy 101, b 4  Tremendous variety 5  Understanding marrying 6  Feather Types 7  Feather Names 8  The wing feathers 9  Stages of plumage 10 Summation 11 Definitions 12 References

The first chapter >>>   A part of learning to do flies like this one is learning to know the main material: feathers. See Wayne's fly in full size.