For the Birds: The Changing of the Feathers

What a healthy wing looks like.
Photo by Elaine Chuang

By Christine Southwick

Have you seen one or two large feathers, usually black, on the ground? Not to worry, unlucky crows aren’t being attacked.

There are also feathers from other birds being found on the ground, but small white Junco tail feathers, or flight feathers from chickadees are harder to see…

Feathers determine what a bird looks like (and usually how we identify them), the colors of the bird, and how birds are able to fly.

Wing in Molt with spaces where feathers are missing.
Wing on other side will basically match.

Feathers, made out of keratin (as are human hair and fingernails), are shaped around a shaft (rachis) and held together with barbs and barbules which latch together (sort of like Velcro). 

When birds preen their feathers they are latching those barbs and barbules back together after bushes, branches, and wind disarrayed their functioning arrangement. Sun also degrades feathers. This causes feathers to wear out and need to be replaced.

Found feathers primary and secondary flight feathers with obvious wear and tear.
Photo by Christine Southwick

Discarded flight feathers indicate that songbirds in the Pacific Northwest have started the process of the annual replacing of all their feathers. This is called Molting.

Songbirds, which even include Crows and Ravens (really), replace all their feathers each year, in an orderly manner, so that they can still fly while having less than a full quota of feathers.

There are six types of feathers, with the flight feathers on the wings and the tail, the ones which are the largest and most obvious. They are shed in such an orderly manner that a bird can be aged by which feather(s) is/are missing, and which ones have already been replaced, or not. 

Other tracks of feathers also molt on a regular schedule with the neck and head usually last. Which look really funny on larger birds—crows often look like they have been strangled during this phase, but loss of all the neck feathers means they are almost through with their annual molt.

Male Hairy Woodpecker showing how flight feathers of wing and tail fold on themselves.
Photo by Christine Southwick

Because growing new feathers requires a lot of energy, most songbirds wait to begin their molt until after their last brood of babies has left the nest, and the adults only need to feed themselves.

Since the molting process is stressful, providing good food and water plus sheltered areas are helpful for our resident birds. Some birds will stay in bushes for protection. They also eat more bugs and suet for instant energy.

You will probably see lots of feathers in the birdbaths—make it a good time to identify their differences.