Feather Library is a one of its kind digital space that is documenting feathers of various avian species in a bid to become a unique repository of one of the most beautiful parts of a bird.

Feather Library is an online library that is a unique source for bird plumage in November 2021. To build the collection, she tied up with rescue centres and says that her Co-Founder Sherwin Everett, who works at a rescue centre in Ahmedabad helps her with the specimens.

Munshi started with about ten species and now she has documented 110 species with 250 specimens of feathers. Munshi is currently only documenting the flight feathers and is not documenting the body feathers, as all the old specimens available in Indian museums have folded wings when it is preserved and once it dries there is no way of extending the wings.

The feathers are marked with a specific nomenclature and the primary wing feathers are called Primaries (marked as starting with P), the secondaries and tertials (called S and T), Alulas (A) and the tail feathers are called Rectrices (R) and by looking at the plate it is clear which part of the wing the feather belongs to.

The art of curating the bird, taxidermy and the art of bird watching are very different and Munshi is trying to create a bridge between these two. And the hope is that this gives birds more wind beneath their wings.

Read the full story that first appeared in The New Indian Express here: