Crow feather disease?
Joanna and Rush Taylor (jandrtaylor@ibm.net)
Thu, 01 Apr 1999 19:39:27 -0500
I have a few crows that check into my feeder regularly. I know
they are the same ones because of strange white patches on their
wings. I had orginally assumed that either they were albinistic
or a friend had pooped on them until I actually looked at them
with my bins. The white patches turned out to be areas of bare
feather shaft - they looked like bones against the rest of the
feathers. While the patches are easily seen when the crows are grounded, I
have had a hard time trying to find what's missing when they fly. I think
it is somewhere in the tertials. Occasionally
one of these feathers will stick up out of the wing at a strange
angle giving a spoon like or peacock tail feather effect. The
crows have been like this at least since January so I don't think
this is molt related. Does anybody have any idea what is going
on here? Thanks,
Joanna Taylor
Arlington, VA