Crest (feathers) Crest (feathers) The crest is a prominent feature exhibited by several bird and other dinosaur species on their heads. The crest is made up of semiplume feathers: a long rachis with barbs on either side. These are plumulaceous feathers, meaning that they are soft and bendable. In birds, these semiplumes are common along the head, neck, and upper back, and may be used for buoyancy and sensing vibrations. Crests on birds are generally used for display purposes. Cockatoos and their smaller cousins, cockatiels, are part of the parrot family Cacatuidae found in Australia, the Bismarck Archipelago and the Philippines, and
What Bird is That? of "What Bird is That?" It was published in 1984 and incorporated all of Cayley’s paintings created over many years for his vision of releasing a “big bird book” and included a revised taxonomy. In the 53 years since its first edition, more than a hundred new bird species had been identified in Australia. Scientific names had been changed and groups of birds had been reordered. Lindsey brought "What Bird is That?" up-to-date with the latest birding conventions of the time, as well as contributing a valuable supplementary list of birds and a scholarly catalogue of Cayley’s paintings. The "Signature