Question: Why do birds have Feathers on their wings

Alex Evans answered on 16 Mar 2017:

Great question! There a few good theories about how feathers evolved, but it’s hard to know for sure because we only really have fossils to tell us what happened!

One theory is that some small dinosaurs started adapting feathers on their arms as a way of helping them gain “lift” in order to run up trees so they could nest in safety away from other dinosaurs.

These small dinosaurs then developed better feathers and wings and also evolved other features that made them better flying, and these dinos are the ancestors of the birds we have today! Technically, birds are considered to be living dinosaurs! 🙂