Blue Jay With Tail Feathers Missing (1 Viewer)

[mike_157]

There are usually anywhere from 3 to a dozen blue jays that visit my feeders everyday and yesterday I noticed that one of them had lost all of it's tail feathers, I'm guessing it was a lucky escape from a cat or possibly a hawk( rarely I see a hawk stop by but the blue jays usually drive it away). Will this blue jay's tail feathers start to grow back now or will they not grow back until next year when it molts again? The Jay can still fly fairly good but I can tell it has to work harder than normal and am a little worried that it might have a hard time getting through the winter.

 

[Enji]

I believe that if the feathers are pulled out completely they will start growing back pretty much at once.
If they, on the other hand, have just been broken off they won't regrow until the birds moults.

I guess that if it's lost the entire tail the feathers have been pulled out when it tried to escape so they should regrow soon.

 

[mike_157]

I'm sure they are pulled out completely there is no sign of any feathers at all. I think the other blue jays took pity for it because they usually swoop in and try to drive each other away,but they seem to be less agressive towards it and give it some extra space when feeding.

Edit:

This morning I noticed another blue jay with two tail feathers missing (outer most feathers 1 from each side). The night before I noticed the first blue jay with all of it's tail feathers missing we had some wet snow falling then it dipped below freezing overnight, I found a blog post where a person said that in similar weather conditions some mourning doves that were roosting near his house had their tail feathers frozen onto their perches and ended up tearing out some of them to get unstuck. I'm thinking this is what might have happened.

 

[YourBirdOasis]

Interesting! Often I hear about mourning doves that lose all their tail feathers during the winter. Because they are ground feeders, their feathers freeze to the ground then when they fly away, they lose their tail. I've never heard of so many blue jays losing their tails. They have already molted their feathers (July/August).

 

[mike_157]

Interesting! Often I hear about mourning doves that lose all their tail feathers during the winter. Because they are ground feeders, their feathers freeze to the ground then when they fly away, they lose their tail. I've never heard of so many blue jays losing their tails. They have already molted their feathers (July/August).

Some of them went bald and looked pretty funny when they were moulting this year but there are only 2 that have tail feathers missing now (one with all gone and one with just a couple gone). He seems to be dealing with it ok for now, we still see him everyday but it seems that he has trouble gliding without the tail feathers and spends more time flapping his wings than the others.