虽然鸟类用羽毛飞行，但有些鸟类的羽毛还有其他用途。
Although birds use their feathers for flight, some of their feathers are for other purposes.
甲虫幼虫含有独特的化学成分，从猎食它们的鸟类的羽毛和血液中可以找到这种成分的痕迹。
The beetle larvae have a distinct chemical make-up, which can be traced through the feathers and blood of birds that eat them.
你知道他们说，对鸟类的羽毛！
鸟类的羽毛能凭空气扎煞起来以保暖。
鸟类的羽毛羊群一起……但是，你有什么要求的家庭呢？
Birds of a feather flock together... but what do you call the family?
这是锦葵的花粉。它的刺帮助它牢牢地吸附在鸟类的羽毛上。
The pollen from a mallow flower. Its spines help it cling to birds' feathers.
现代鸟类的羽毛色彩和形状各异，会发出各种光芒，并带有明亮的条纹和色斑。
Feathers on birds today come in a huge range of colors and patterns, with iridescent sheens and brilliant streaks and splashes.
石油污染会阻止光和氧气进入水，杀死植物，并且粘在鸟类的羽毛上，导致它们失去飞翔的能力。
Oil spills stop light and oxygen getting into water, killing plants, and can cover the feather of birds, causing them unable to fly.
随着时间的推移，羽毛变得越来越大，扑翼飞行逐渐发展，鸟类最终完全可以在空中飞行。
As feathers became larger over time, flapping flight evolved and birds finally became fully air-borne.
从那开始，剩下的章节都是引人入胜的自然史，以巧妙命名的章节排列：“绒毛”，羽毛如何让鸟类保持温暖而干燥。
From there on, the remaining chapters are captivating natural history, arranged in neatly named sections: "fluff", how feathers keep birds warm and dry.
更有可能的是鸟类运输：或者是通过外部途径，即种籽偶然附着在羽毛上；或者是通过内部途径，即鸟类吞食果实并随后将种籽排泄出来。
More probable is bird transport, either externally, by accidental attachment of the seeds to feathers, or internally, by the swallowing of fruit and subsequent excretion of the seeds.
鸟类的第二根手指是翅膀的主要支柱，翅膀主要由羽毛组成。
In birds the second finger is the principal strut of the wing, which consists primarily of feathers.
正如我们讨论过的，鸟类显然是恐龙的后代，与一些恐龙物种有许多共同之处，比如羽毛，甚至飞行，当然还有产卵。
As we've discussed, birds are apparently descendants of dinosaurs and shared many commonalities with some dinosaur species, like feathers and maybe even flight and of course egg laid.
这一发现有助于巩固恐龙和鸟类之间的联系，但它也为自然界最初为什么会产生羽毛这一谜题提供了新的线索。
The find helps cement the dinosaur-bird connection, but it also casts new light on the mystery of why nature invented feathers in the first place.
在中国出土的有羽毛的恐龙化石为恐龙和鸟类之间的密切进化关系提供了迄今为止最引人注目的证据。
Unearthed in China, fossils of feathered dinosaurs offer the most dramatic evidence yet discovered of the close evolutionary relationship between dinosaurs and birds.
任何一种鸫科迁徒鸟类的上部羽毛通常为褐色。
Any of migratory songbirds of the family Turdidae usually have brownish upper plumage.
红嘴山鸦东半球的一种似乌鸦的山鸦属鸟类，有黑色羽毛和红色的腿部。
A crowlike Old World bird of the genus Pyrrhocorax has black plumage and red legs.
游隼捕到鸟类猎物时，通常是先拔掉它们的羽毛，再把肉撕下来。
Peregrine falcons usually pluck the feathers and strip the flesh off their bird prey.
换句话说，这些鸟类是一次性褪光所有羽毛的。
这就解释了为何城市中深色羽毛的鸟类较多，因为这些地区寄生虫患病率较高。
This could also explain why there are higher populations of dark feathered birds in urban areas, where parasite prevalence is higher.
因此，有科学家表示，研究者需要探讨的问题并非是鸟类如何获得羽毛，而应该是鳄鱼如何丧失羽毛。
So perhaps the question to ask, say some scientists, is not how birds got their feathers, but how alligators lost theirs.
“如果始祖鸟是在今天发现的，我觉得古生物学家们肯定不会说它是鸟类，其实它就是一种带羽毛的恐龙，”卡里诺说。
"If Archaeopteryx were discovered today, I don't think you would call it a bird. You would call it a feathered dinosaur," says Carrano.
他们发表在《科学》杂志上的研究成果，建立了曾经存在于古代鸟类羽毛中的色素的化学指纹图谱。
Their study, published in the journal Science, revealed the chemical fingerprint of pigments that once tinted the ancient bird's feathers.
多年以来，怀疑论者一直在提出所谓的时间悖论：即没有发现比始祖鸟更为古老的带羽毛恐龙，因此，鸟类不可能起源于恐龙。
For years, skeptics had raised the so-called temporal paradox: there were no feathered dinosaurs older than Archaeopteryx, so birds could not have arisen from dinosaurs.
可能已经是时候最终接受‘始祖鸟’只是又一只在侏罗纪时期飞来飞去的长有羽毛的像鸟类的小兽脚亚目食肉恐龙了。
Perhaps the time has come to finally accept that archaeopteryx was just another small, feathered, bird-like theropod fluttering around in the Jurassic.
始祖鸟拥有羽毛，它身上既有现代鸟类的特征，也有远古爬行动物的痕迹，例如口中有牙齿，翅膀上有爪子，还有一条硕长的骨质尾巴。
It had feathers and other traits of living birds but also vestiges of a reptilian past, such as teeth in its mouth, claws on its wings, and a long, bony tail.
于是他和他的同事对那些已经灭绝的鸟类羽毛的化石做了显微观察。
He and his colleagues made a microscopic inspection of fossils of feathers from extinct birds.
这种集黄色，红色，橙色和棕色于一身的鸟类，能够呈现出如此多的色彩，得益于它的羽毛角蛋白间质里含有色素。
The yellow, red, orange, and brown birds of the world assume their hues because of a pigment embedded in the keratin matrix of feathers.
鸟类是从恐龙进化而来的，但羽毛的起源则要追溯到更为久远的上古时代，恐龙和翼手龙的共同祖先才是羽毛出现的源点，例如上图左边的这块化石。
Birds evolved from dinosaurs, but the origin of their feathers may trace back even deeper in time, to the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, like the fossil at left.
鸟类是从恐龙进化而来的，但羽毛的起源则要追溯到更为久远的上古时代，恐龙和翼手龙的共同祖先才是羽毛出现的源点，例如上图左边的这块化石。
Birds evolved from dinosaurs, but the origin of their feathers may trace back even deeper in time, to the common ancestor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs, like the fossil at left.
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