Cleaning Oiled Feathers

In this experiment, you'll look at the way oil affects bird feathers and try out different cleanup methods to find out which works best.

Materials

• Clean, dry feathers (good places to find feathers are beaches, parks, and pet stores)
  
• Three bowls
  
• Vegetable oil
  
• Dish-washing detergent
  
• Hot and cold water (the hot water should be about the same temperature you'd use to wash dishes, and not too hot to put your hands in)

Instructions

1. Take a look at the feathers you've collected, then try to answer the following questions:
   • What kinds of water birds can you think of? [possible answers]
     
   • What kinds of things do water birds do? [possible answers]
     
   • What do feathers do for water birds? [possible answers]

2. Get a bowl and some vegetable oil.
   
   If you'd like, you can mix a little cocoa powder into the vegetable oil to make it show up better and look more like crude oil.

3. Fill the bowl with water to an inch or two below the rim. Pour some oil on the water.
   
   The oil will spread out over the surface of the water.

4. Dip some of your feathers into the oil on the water.
   
   You're imitating what happens when a bird lands on an oil slick on the ocean.

   Here's a picture of this step.

   Oiling feathers

5. Take a look at the feathers now, then try to answer the following questions:
   
   What happened to the feathers when they got oiled? [possible answers]
   
   How do you think this might affect a water bird wearing these feathers? [possible answers]

6. Now try three methods of cleaning feathers:
   • Cold water washing. Put some cold water in a bowl, then try washing some of the oiled feathers in it. Watch what happens.
     
   • Hot water washing. Put some hot water in a bowl, then try washing some of the oiled feathers in it. Watch what happens.
     
   • Washing with detergent. Put some hot water and detergent in a bowl, then try washing some of the oiled feathers in it. Watch what happens.

   Here's a picture of this step.

   Cleaning feathers

   Which method worked best? Imagine that you're washing a real, live bird that has been oiled. What things would you need to think about? Which method would you choose to clean the bird? [possible answers]

Cleaning Up

The materials for this experiment are all non-toxic. You can put them in the trash once you've finished your experiment.

For more information

Students and Teachers View everything on our site for students and teachers.

Other pages in this series

Oil Floats and Spreads See one of our other experiments using oil.