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Ask a Birder: Is it true high altitude migrating birds have black wing tips for protection?

September 17, 2025 by Kai Pflug No Comments

To quote Vicky Pollard: “No, but yeah, but no, but yeah, but no, but yeah”.

To be a bit more specific: It is partly true, but it is more about wear resistance in general than about altitude.

First, some background for those who did not pose the question: Many long-distance migrants, including high-altitude migrants, have black wingtips.

But this is a general adaptation to improve the wear resistance of feathers. Melanin is a black pigment that is known to make feathers tough and more resistant to wear and tear (source). 

Some bird activities and lifestyles require particularly wear-resistant feathers:

  • Long-distance migration
  • Frequent soaring
  • Intensive use of the outer primary feathers during flapping
  • Use of tail feathers to prop the birds up (e.g., in woodpeckers)

This does not specifically include high-altitude migration, but of course, most, if not all, high-altitude migrants are also long-distance migrants, or one of the other points listed above applies to them.

Photo: Bar-tailed Goose, Qinghai Lake, August 2021

Written by Kai Pflug
Kai has lived in Shanghai for 21 years. He only started birding after moving to China, so he is far more familiar with Chinese birds than the ones back in his native Germany. As a birder, he considers himself strictly average and tries to make up for it with photography, which he shares on a separate website. Alas, most of the photos are pretty average as well.He hopes that few clients of his consulting firm—focused on China’s chemical industry—ever find this blog, as it might raise questions about his professional priorities. Much of his time is spent either editing posts for 10,000 Birds or cleaning the litter boxes of his numerous indoor cats. He occasionally considers writing a piece comparing the two activities.