Scaling and primary flight feather strength

This study revealed that primary flight feathers scale in a geometrically similar manner with respect to body mass and not in an elastically similar manner. That is, feather size increased without a corresponding change in shape. The effect of geometrically similar scaling on feather strength was a relative decrease in strength with increasing body mass. Total wing area also scaled in a geometrically similar fashion such that smaller birds had relatively more wing area than larger birds. Wing loading did not change in a regular manner with feather strength, but showed patterns related to wing shape. Predictions about greater feather strength in birds which are subjected to loading extremes were proven to be false.