[mou] bald blue jays

[Laura Erickson]

Some adult Blue Jays also lose all their head feathers in their late summer 
molt.  The licensed education Blue Jay I had for many years lost all its 
head feathers every single fall for 8 years.  It was housed next to another 
jay who never lost all its head feathers during that same molt, so the molt 
pattern seems to have quite a bit of individual variation.


Laura Erickson
Duluth, MN

  NOTE address change: chickadee@lauraerickson.com
Producer, "For the Birds" radio program
<http://www.lauraerickson.com/>

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of 
birds.  There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of 
nature--the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter.

                                 --Rachel Carson