Today this Junco showed up at my feeder. I'm not sure if he lost his tail due to a predator or whether it is genetic or not. He does have a couple of unusual small white markings on him. His flying has been changed somewhat too. he tends to just bomb on in to the feeder as he has no tail feathers to slow him down on landings.
Very nice capture Chris,
Poor little guy...:( I wish him all the best...I think he needs to go back to flight school for flight modification techniques...:):cool:
This little one is molting! See those white pin feathers below and behind his eye? Those are pinfeathers. The loss of tail feathers could be due to a near death experience from a predator or perhaps he's undergoing a hard molt and lost all the tail feathers at once.
I breed Gouldian finches as a hobby and occasionally they will do this and molt all their tail feathers at once. Yes, they can fly but do have some rudder problems and need to work harder to make turns and landings. But they can be very good fliers without a tail.
Stumpy the Dark Eyed Junco
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