Ken Gibson / CC
It’s that time of year. Bald blue jay season.
I only really started to notice this a few years ago. At first, I thought it might be some sort of disease. Or maybe they needed to change their shampoo. Or perhaps it was the heat.
No. It’s molting season.
Blue jays are not the only victims. Many birds go through this. This most notable are blue jays and cardinals. Probably because we are so used to seeing them look pretty fine with their pretty colours and flashy feathers. But for a short period every year, some of those feathers are not so flashy.
To give you an idea of just how common this is, the picture on here is actually a stock image. I searched for “bald blue jay” and this is what popped up.
I have no idea why I didn’t notice this until fairly recently. It’s not something new. In fact, it is the “birds shedding feathers” moon that has just appeared in the sky. So it’s been happening for a long time. Probably since about the time birds decided to stop being dinosaurs. (Check out the Mi’kmaw Moons Facebook page for the local names of the various moons.)
So if you happen to see birds with strange looking feathers, it could be just the annual molt. Or they may have joined a cult the requires them to shave their heads, but that’s pretty unlikely. Those feathers will grow back fairly soon.
In the meantime, I get to laugh at the blue jays.
