Unusual Bird: Blue jay without tail feathers
This blue jay seems to have lost all of its tail feathers. It appears otherwise healthy, and seemed to have no trouble flying from the trees in my yard to the ground to get the peanuts I was tossing.
Categories: Other
Tags: Missing feathers Tail
Comments
9 comments on “Unusual Bird: Blue jay without tail feathers”
That’s a lucky blue jay. Having no tail feathers is usually caused by a fright molt, which is when a bird’s tail feathers all fall out at once when a predator grabs it’s tail and the bird is able to get away.
My dog got a blue jays tail feathers and it hopped to some sticker bushes and got stuck we got it out and have it in a cage because it can’t fly or help itself. how can we help it? At least until it can fly again and go back to the wild
Thank you for this question and answer. I just saw one at my bird feeder. He is lucky indeed!
I have one and asked GOOGLE. This is one of the sites. Thanks🐦
I just saw a lucky blue jay in my back yard but he looked a little thin to me!
I saw a Jay today with absolutely no tail feathers. A bit concerning because the chest feathers were either dirty or wet so she seemed disheveled. I came on line to see if it was possibly a baby Jay.
I have a very healthy-appearing fledgling blue jay with no tail feathers at my feeders…….believe he/she is one of the “lucky” ones. Her looks are quite endearing!
I’m in Manitoba and I have a lucky Bluejay visit my feeder daily, my reasoning was correct, I figured he’d lost them to a predator !!
My main blue jay lost its tail feathers. He was the one that waited for the peanuts. When I threw them out He would get the others to eat. They would all wait until everyone came and then it was war 🙂 But the main guy seems all by himself now? I am sad for him. The others come at a different time.