Hairlike

The sensation of sound occurs when the vibrations from sounds enter our ear and cause little hairlike structures — called hair cells — within our inner ear to move back and forth.

A third rarer type of feather, the filoplume, is hairlike and (if present in a bird; they are entirely absent in ratites citation ) grows along the fluffy down feathers.

Caught prey can be felt by owls with the use of filoplumes —hairlike feathers on the beak and feet that act as "feelers".

They house large numbers of sense organs that can detect touch (mechanoreceptors), smell and taste, and small, hairlike mechanoreceptors that can detect air movement so as to "hear" sounds.