Our bird feeder hosts a mourning dove that lacks any long tail feathers.
At first I thought it was just a drastic job of molting, but the bird 
has been tailless
for so long it must just be the way the bird is built. It doesn't seem to have
too much trouble flying, and it's well fed, so the lack of rudder must not
be much of a handicap. I think the bird is male, judging by how 
aggressive it is toward
the other doves.

Earlier today, another mourning dove was under the feeder with a small group
of grackles. Twice it lifted its wings, almost the way a mockingbird will, when
the grackles came close. Do mourning doves normally do a wing-lift 
threat display?

I also saw the male purple finch with his crest raised. I didn't 
realize purple finches even had
crests, but he was facing off against a cardinal on the same branch, 
and with those feathers
up he did look like a miniature pink cardinal.

Today the suet attracted a male hairy woodpecker and a surprise 
red-breasted nuthatch.


--Pat

Pat Valdata, Elkton, MD | 
"I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by."
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