Tail-less, or rather tail-feather-less, birds have been surprisingly
numerous recently in the neighborhood of my office along the north side
of I-90 just above Factoria. In the past week I've seen tail-less
editions of Steller's Jay, Starling, Northern Flicker, and this morning,
a House Finch. I'm thinking maybe a slightly but chronically tardy
Cooper's Hawk might be the cause of all this acaudacity.

BTW, the Steller's jay still flicked its tail up a couple of times after
landing on a branch, even though it had no tail to flick. Old habits die
hard, they say.

Brian Pendleton
brianpen at expedia.com
(425) 564-7429