Editing Feather (section)

===Utilitarian ===
[[File:Fully feathered basket Santa Roas College.jpg|thumb|[[Pomo]] [[fully feathered basket]] curated at the Jesse Peter Multicultural Museum, Santa Rosa College]]
[[File:Female model with feathers.jpg|thumb|Female model with feathers]]
Bird feathers have long been used for [[fletching]] [[arrow (weapon)|arrows]]. Colorful feathers such as those belonging to [[pheasant]]s have been used to decorate [[fishing lure]]s.

Feathers are also valuable in aiding the identification of species in forensic studies, particularly in [[bird strike]]s to aircraft. The ratios of hydrogen isotopes in feathers help in determining the geographic origins of birds.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Oecologia|title=Global application of stable hydrogen and oxygen isotopes to wildlife forensics|volume=143|issue=3|pages=337–348|doi=10.1007/s00442-004-1813-y|year=2005|pmid=15726429|author1=Bowen, Gabriel J|author2=Wassenaar, Leonard I|author3=Hobson, Keith A|bibcode=2005Oecol.143..337B|s2cid=1762342}}</ref> Feathers may also be useful in the non-destructive sampling of pollutants.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Jaspers, V. |author2=Voorspoels, S. |author3=Covaci, A. |author4=Lepoint, G. |author5= Eens, M. |name-list-style=amp|year=2007|title=Evaluation of the usefulness of bird feathers as a non-destructive biomonitoring tool for organic pollutants: A comparative and meta-analytical approach|journal=Environment International|volume=33|issue=3|pages=328–337|doi=10.1016/j.envint.2006.11.011|pmid=17198730|bibcode=2007EnInt..33..328J |hdl=2268/1067 |url=http://orbi.ulg.ac.be/handle/2268/1067 |hdl-access=free}}</ref>

The poultry industry produces a large amount of feathers as waste, which, like other forms of keratin, are slow to decompose. Feather waste has been used in a number of industrial applications as a medium for culturing microbes,<ref>{{Cite journal|title=Use of feather-based culture media for the production of mosquitocidal bacteria|doi=10.1016/j.biocontrol.2007.04.019|journal=Biological Control|volume=43|issue=1|pages=49–55|author1=Poopathi, S.  |author2=Abidha, S.|year=2007|bibcode=2007BiolC..43...49P }}</ref> biodegradable polymers,<ref>{{Cite conference |author1=Schmidt, W.F. |author2=Barone, J.R. |year=2004|contribution=New uses for chicken feathers keratin fiber |title=Poultry Waste Management Symposium Proceedings|pages=99–101 |url=https://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publication/?seqNo115=170632}}</ref> and production of enzymes.<ref>{{Cite journal|journal=Food and Bioprocess Technology|title=Use of Poultry Byproduct for Production of Keratinolytic Enzymes|volume=1|issue=3|pages=301–305|year=2008|doi=10.1007/s11947-008-0091-9|author1=Casarin, Franciani|author2=Brandelli, Florencia Cladera-Olivera Adriano|last3=Brandelli|first3=Adriano|s2cid=96154497}}</ref> Feather proteins have been tried as an adhesive for wood board.<ref>{{Cite journal|author1=Jiang, Z.|author2=Qin, D.|author3=Hse, C.|author4=Kuo, M.|author5=Luo, Z.|author6=Wang, G.|year=2008|title=Preliminary Study on Chicken Feather Protein-Based Wood Adhesives|url=http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/33607|journal=Journal of Wood Chemistry & Technology|volume=28|issue=3|pages=240–246|doi=10.1080/02773810802347073|s2cid=3656808|display-authors=etal|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219195609/http://www.srs.fs.usda.gov/pubs/33607|archive-date=19 February 2014}}</ref>

Some groups of Native people in Alaska have used ptarmigan feathers as temper (non-plastic additives) in pottery manufacture since the first millennium BC in order to promote thermal shock resistance and strength.<ref>Neusius, Sarah W. and G. Timothy Gross
2007 Seeking Our Past: An Introduction to North American Archaeology.  Oxford University Press, NY.
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