The other day I was at Jug Bay in AACo. There were LOTS of red-wigned black
birds feasting on the wild rice patches. What struck me as funny was the
sheer numbers of males(mostly) that were missing their tail feathers
completely or were in the process of growing them back. I know that some
bird groups (ducks) can loose all of their flight feathers at once, but I
didn't know any passerines did that. It was just weird seeing these black
balls flying around with red and yellow racing stripes.
Does anyone have any idea why so many birds all at once would seem to have
lost the same feathers?
Adam Smith
Baltimore County MD
Anne Arundel County MD |