By Tony Gazso, Interpretive Naturalist

Every year in late summer our backyard friends tend to look a little…rough. The culprit? Molting season. Living the bird life can be difficult and a bird’s feathers take a lot of wear and tear. To keep themselves clean and healthy and in top flying shape, birds grow in new feathers and lose old damaged ones through a process known as molting.
 
While all birds molt, they don’t all do it in the same way. Sometimes, a bird will molt a bit differently than normal. If you’ve ever looked outside and seen a bird without head feathers, there’s probably no need to worry as it’s just how that bird is molting. Cardinals and blue jays can sometimes be seen completely bald during the late summer causing folks to become concerned about a possible disease. While infestations of feather mites can cause conditions of feather loss, in the case of cardinals and blue jays it's common enough that scientists have determined that it's just an irregular molting pattern. We aren’t sure why some of these birds molt in this way, but rest assured if a bald cardinal shows up at your feeders, it isn’t something to be concerned over.

Bald Northern cardinal

Another bird that sometimes molts all of its head feathers is the Eastern screech owl. Typically, the head feathers of these birds grow back in within a month. But during those strange few weeks in summer the sight of a bald bird can be quite jarring to those unfamiliar. It’s a good illustration of just how much shape and volume feathers add to birds overall, while those little bald heads make it easier to see the relation between birds and their extinct non-avian dinosaur cousins!

Lake Metroparks' Animal Ambassador Rufous the Eastern screech owl molting