Bluejay without tail feathers

[Lana Hays]

I have at least 7-8 Bluejays that come for their peanuts, along with all the woodpeckers. There is one Bluejay that doesn't have any tail feathers. He seems healthy and flies well. I've been seeing him for at least a month.......looks so odd compared to the others. I've heard of birds seen with no tail feathers before but this is the first that I've ever seen.........what's the deal?

[Susan Griffith]

I wonder if it could be one of a couple of things. I have seen birds molt out all their tail feathers, but I am not sure thats all too common. Most of the time birds molt out 2 tail feathers at a time. And the other reason i could think of is another bird pulled them in a show of dominace. But those would be my ideas.

-Susan

[Julie Kenward]

Not sure if this will help but last year I had a cardinal at my feeders with no feathers from the neck up. I ran to google and found out that parasites can get so bad they actually cause huge clumps of feathers to fall out at once. OUCH!!!

[Lana Hays]

Julie
I've seen Cardinals with that condition......they do look strange. However, I think there might be something else going on with this situation.

[John Chardine]

Lana et al.- you often see fledglings with no tails but as you were seeing this bird for a month they should have grown in by now.

I have heard of situations where if the egg is not rotated enough during incubation, that the embryo can get stuck to the inside of the egg (membrane) and this can affect feather development in the wings or tail. Anyone out there raised chickens from the egg and can verify this?

Mystery still unresolved at this stage. Need more input!!

[Lana Hays]

John
An interesting explanation. For what it's worth, I heard of this on a bird list and another one from Florida. Both birds just happened to be Bluejays. When I did a search the first thing that came up was a picture......and you guessed it......another Bluejay. I don't know if it's more of an inherent problem with Bluejays or if it's just coincidence.

[Rosl Roessner]

Hi to all,
birds often loose their tail feathers, when they were attacked by a cat or a hawk or a Sparrowhawk.
Then they prefer loosing their tail than their life....