Sometimes, absence of a tail is the result of escape from a cat. But, I have seen a number of Song Sparrows here, while banding, and the newly fledged birds seem to have no tail. But, they do grow back fast as I have seen one with a growing stub.

Hal Michael
Board of Directors, Ecologists Without Borders http://ecowb.org/
Olympia WA
360-459-4005
360-791-7702 (C)
ucd880 at comcast.net




> On 08/16/2021 5:46 PM DONNA POOLE <poole9561 at msn.com> wrote:

>

>

>

> Molting?

>

>

>

>

> > > On Aug 16, 2021 at 5:44 PM, <Joan Miller mailto:jemskink at gmail.com > wrote:

> >

> > Hi Tweets,

> >

> > I have two song sparrows in my yard that have almost no tail feathers, just little stubby feathers. Has anyone else seen something like this? I recall in past years I have seen one like this, and figured it had escaped some kind of predator. But with two now, it must be genetic. They seem healthy otherwise and can fly. Thoughts?

> >

> > Joan Miller

> > West Seattle

> > jemskink at gmail dot com

> >

> > > _______________________________________________

> Tweeters mailing list

> Tweeters at u.washington.edu

> http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/tweeters

>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman11.u.washington.edu/pipermail/tweeters/attachments/20210816/96d96fca/attachment.html>