Title: Identification of bird taxon based on structural analysis of feather material

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to identify the bird taxon from the remains of feathers. Identification studies are in demand in ornithology, zoology, molting, environmental education, bionics (design of silent aircraft, etc.), ethnography and anthropology. The studies of feather material are needed also in aviation ornithology, archeology, paleontology, paleobiology, environmental ecology and forensic science. On the basis of microstructural study of the feather cover of birds, phylogenetic constructions are made. The peculiarities of the feather structure indicate also the phylogenetic relationship of different taxa, as well as population and intraspecific variability. Using mathematical methods (clustering according to morphometric data of microstructure feather elements), phylogenetic connections between taxa of the highest and middle rank are determined.To minimize bird strikes it is necessary to determine the type of collision participant. The complex systems created at our Institute for species determination of birds by feather remains (feathers, single feather or its fragments) allow to process large amounts of data. The structural method has a number of advantages over molecular genetic analysis; primarily it is less time and money for identification expertise. There is also a drawback: not always the amount of feather material allows you to determine a bird species, that is, a low-ranking taxon.