Hello, tweets.

I wrote this to Gregg Thompson, but I see there was discussion on
tweeters about the plumage of the female King Eider at Ocean Shores,
and some confusion remains.

It's surely a first-year bird, as indicated by how worn the flight
feathers are (that's why they look scraggly, not because of missing
feathers), and such birds aren't breeding yet; they start at either
two years (some) or three years (most) of age. It's probably molting
body feathers now (they do so almost continually in their first
year), but I don't think it's molting any flight feathers. I don't
see any gaps in the wing, and as you know, waterfowl drop them all
pretty much simultaneously when they molt. In the Birds of North
America account, it says the flight feathers of first-year birds
aren't molted until August or September, which makes them over a year
old at that time. No wonder they look so ragged.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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