Why is there a bald bird in my backyard? Is the bird injured or sick? An expert explains why, in most cases, you shouldn't panic.
If You See a Bald Bird at Your Feeder, This Is Why
Updated on Oct. 03, 2024
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Are Bald Birds Sick or Hurt?
Among backyard birders, there are few sights more disconcerting than a bald bird. For one, they often look rather… strange, with the majesty of their crest or head feathers fallen away. But for those of us who feel extensive empathy for our backyard visitors, the sight of a bald bird often brings concern, too. What happened to this poor creature? Do we need to catch it and bring it to a rehabber? Is it sick with a wild bird disease? Not necessarily — and in the overwhelming majority of cases, a bald bird is nothing to fret about. Here’s why.
Why Do Bald Birds Lose Head Feathers?
They don’t look quite right, and it can be a shock to see a strange-looking bird at your feeders. Most of the time, though, a featherless-headed bird is the result of a normal process called molting. At least once a year, birds go through the task of shedding their feathers and replacing them with new ones.
While not all birds shed all their head feathers at once, some do (this is fairly common for the northern cardinal and blue jay). This can result in a bird with no feathers on its head, and regular plumage on the rest of its body: a very weird-looking bald bird.
“Most of the time, the big molt for almost all of our birds occurs in late summer,” says David Wiedenfeld, conservation scientist for American Bird Conservancy. “It could start in July, but it tends to be later. It tends to be August and into early September, but different birds are different.”
Fall molting usually takes place after the breeding season and before migration, and that’s no accident. The process takes a decent amount of energy, but it also enables birds to either migrate or face winter with a set of nice, new feathers.
Some birds also molt in the spring before breeding season, but David says that process tends not to involve head feathers.
Other Reasons a Bird Could Go Bald
To hear David tell it, the most likely explanation by far for a bald bird is molting. He acknowledges that there could be diseases or mite infestations that could cause such an appearance, but according to him, we’re not likely to find such a bird.
“It’s not very common to see a wild bird that’s gotten a bad enough infestation of mites that it’s lost enough feathers to really look bad, and usually birds that get a high infestation of mites are very sick,” he says. “They usually don’t survive so you can see them, and you’re not going to see them as being a featherless bird.”
On a lighter note, most of the time, a bald bird doesn’t mean backyard birders should take down feeders or fret. “If you see a bird that’s bald, especially in August, that’s just normal,” David says.
He emphasizes that during that late summer and early fall timeframe, birds looking odd is completely normal. They’ll grow back their feathers, he says, and they’ll look even better than they did before.
Birding experts Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman agree. “The bald look is sometimes caused by environmental factors like nutritional deficiencies or feather mites. But it’s most commonly the result of molting,” they say.
“To maintain their feathers for flight and keep them water resistant and insulating, birds regularly replace their plumage with new feathers in the process called molt. In some birds, particularly blue jays, cardinals and a few blackbirds, the head molt can happen all at once. This results in very strange-looking birds, like the peculiar visitor in your photo.”
Next, find out why this cardinal is missing its tail feathers.
About the Experts
As senior conservation scientist for American Bird Conservancy, David Wiedenfeld has worked on research pertaining to bird populations for decades. He served as director of research at the Sutton Avian Research Center, and he also served as head of the department of vertebrate ecology at the Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands. He holds a doctorate in biological science from Florida State University, and his favorite bird is the swallow-tailed kite.
Kenn and Kimberly Kaufman are the official bird experts for Birds & Blooms. They are the creators of the Kaufman Field Guide series and they lead birding trips all over the world.
Sources
- Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “I have a bald bird at my feeder. Is it sick?“
- Project Feederwatch, “Bald-Headed Birds“
