**** Info via Hope for Wildlife
In late summer and early fall you may see some birds that look a bit less stylish than usual.
Like this blue jay, they lose all of their head and neck feathers and go around bald for a while. While this can look a bit alarming, it’s usually harmless. The feathers grow back quickly and in a few weeks they are back to their old selves.
Blue jays, common grackles, and northern cardinals seem to be the most frequently reported bald bird sightings, and for them it happens often enough to be considered normal.
Feathers are a bird’s defining feature, providing them with flight, warmth, and weatherproofing. But feathers can wear out or become damaged, and they need to be replaced. Birds replace their feathers a few at a time in a process called molting. Most wild birds molt heaviest in the spring and fall; but between seasons they may continuously replace old or lost feathers here and there.
But sometimes during the fall molt some birds will lose all of their head feathers at once! Scientists are not sure what causes this bird baldness, but we know this scraggly look isn’t necessarily a cause for concern.
