How Did They Get Such Lovely Feathers?

LILAC-BREASTED ROLLERS are common residents of central and southern Africa. They often perch on trees or telephone wires alongside the road. This gives them a good vantage point from which to scan their surroundings for insects and other food.

If you travel through Botswana or Zimbabwe, you may see a streak of bright blue feathers as one of these birds flies across the road. As the name roller indicates, they sometimes show off their colorful feathers in a tumbling aerobatic display. The accompanying picture of the bird and the inset of its wing reveals the roller’s vibrant colors. The wing feathers are a blend of four shades of blue together with black and brown. How well this contrasts with the lilac breast, orange cheeks, white forehead, and light-green crown! This raises an important question: How did they get such lovely feathers?

If you examine the roller’s feet, you will notice that they are covered with scales, not feathers. Did their feathers develop by chance from the scales of a reptile, as evolutionists teach?

Well, consider that a feather is an engineering marvel. Spreading from the shaft of a feather are rows of barbs. “Should two adjoining barbs become separated​—and considerable force is needed to pull the vane apart—​they are instantly zipped together again by drawing the feather through the fingertips,” explains the science textbook Integrated Principles of Zoology. “The bird, of course, does this with its bill.”

Could the hundreds of efficient “zippers” that make up a single feather have arisen by chance? Do scientists have any evidence that a scale actually developed into a feather? “Strangely enough,” admits the above-quoted book, “although modern birds possess both scales (especially on their feet) and feathers, no intermediate stage between the two has been discovered on either fossil or living forms.”

Surely, feathers bear testimony to a Master Engineer who is also an expert at blending lovely colors. Creatures such as the lilac-breasted roller are included among the “winged birds” that “praise the name of Jehovah,” the true God.​—Psalm 148:7, 10-13.

[Picture Credit Line on page 16]

National Parks Board of South Africa