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Function of Wing Feathers: o Primary Feathers propel an owl into flight. o Secondary Feathers keep an owl in flight through gliding. o On both the primary and secondary feathers, there are comb-like structures at the edge of the feather that are responsible for muffling the sound of the air going over the wing – this essentially makes an owl silent when they fly. o Also, an owl’s feathers can separate from each other on the same wing; therefore, the air flows over each of the individual feathers and their comb-like structures, which maximizes how silently an owl flies. Information from cornell.edu