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#365DaysWild, birding, birdwatching, blackbird, British birds, moulting bird, moulting Blackbird
As I’m sure most of you know, birds undergo a moult of their feathers after breeding, which is why everything goes very quiet for a few weeks: they’re vulnerable to predation while their new feathers are growing in. This Blackbird appears to have completed its moult of body feathers but not yet its head. Either that or it has some kind of infection or parasite, perhaps, that’s caused this partial loss.
Fortunately, the bird’s baldy look is not affecting its ability to get about or feed. As I watched this morning, it cleared away a big pile of leaves and snaffled down the fat juicy worm it found.
earthstar 
The poor thing – I hope it regrows the head feathers before Winter.
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One of my more cheeky friends suggested I knit it a balaclava. 😉
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I can help with that, I have tiny needles!
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Ha ha ha. I look forward to seeing your design. 🙂
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I have seen Magpies in a similar state. I’m not sure if it’s their summer moult or this year’s youngsters getting their adult plumage.
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Moult is a fascinating process, isn’t it? I’ve seen a few very scruffy looking magpies too.
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It’s a virus, I think. Probably the same one that afflicts chaffinches and sometimes tits. Blackbirds are usually able to survive it, but not always the smaller birds. I did have a note of what it is. If I find it I’ll let you know when I return (I’m going to take some time off blogging – about a month. Not sure if you know but I know longer blog at the one you used to follow – I started two others that I run now.).
People are usually very alarmed when birds hide while they’re moulting, don’t you find? When I used to be on Facebook a friend of mine always got terribly anxious about it, not remembering that she’d posted the same each previous year and the birds had always returned afterwards!
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If you’re thinking of trichomonosis, I don’t think it’s that. This bird’s head isn’t showing any lesions or other signs of disease, and the rest of it looked perfectly fine.
I’ve been reading about all sorts of potential reasons, including the stress-induced avian equivalent of alopecia! In this case though, there does seem to be some new growth coming through so hopefully it will be okay in a few weeks.
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I love the idea that birds get alopecia! (Though ‘stress induced’ isn’t good.) I see this on birds a lot where I live (Powys/Shropshire border) – blackbirds get it a lot here, but also blue-tits. Many of the latter, we’ve nicknamed ‘little head’ as their heads become so featherless that they look like they’ve just hatched, whereas the bodies are fine. No, I don’t think it was trichomonosis that I was thinking of, I’ll see if I can find the link later on. Thanks, Annie. By the way, someone commented on my post about the shiny webby-stuff and I think when you first said caterpillar, you might have been right.
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