You would think they would run and hide. Or maybe at least stay out of public view, but they are not exactly a rare sighting this time of year. I’m talking about strange looking blue jays.
Most times, blue jays look pretty good. That blue tuft sticking up might not be for everyone, but it suits them.
But at other times they look like they are going through a phase and cutting their hair really short… and badly. Only they don’t have hair. Some just have a lack of feathers, others you can really notice the head is actually very dark coloured under what used to be head feathers.
You may be tempted to think there is something wrong. Perhaps some sort of disease attacking blue jays, but it’s just an annual thing they go through.
I’ll admit, I never really noticed until a couple years ago, when I had these weird bald blue jays showing up. Slowly, over the course of a couple weeks, they went back to looking like a normal blue jay. Apparently, it’s not unusual for blue jays to molt around the end of August, first part ot September. You would think it would be embarrassing to show up in public looking like that, but I guess blue jays just have no shame. I’ve been reading that cardinals also go through a similar molt, but I have not yet caught sight of a bald cardinal.
I just hope they don’t mind me laughing and pointing.
Here is a "molted" blue jay.
Blue jays of all ages go bald for about a week in late summer. Apparently once a feather has grown to full size, it is no longer connected to the blood supply. Each bird must get new feathers every year. #moltedbluejay #Birds pic.twitter.com/PMDXPusAzc— Donna Wells (@DonnaWells08) August 26, 2019
