Visitors over the summer may have noticed that some of our birds are looking particularly dishevelled at the moment.
All birds moult their feathers, with different types of birds adopting different strategies that work for them. Waterfowl, such as ducks, geese and swans, will drop most of their feathers at once, making them unable to fly. At this time of year you may have seen large gatherings of waterfowl on ponds or lakes, where they can at least escape terrestrial predators by going on the water. Most other birds will only drop a few feathers at a time, as they have to be able to fly to escape danger or find food.
Having missing feathers isn’t necessarily going to impact on their survival, but it will make it a bit harder for them to fly, and in the case of birds of prey, hunt.
Lincoln, our Bald Eagle is currently over at SOS2, having a holiday as he grows some new feathers. He will be back in his usual spot near our entrance in the Autumn to welcome visitors.
Titch is also having a well deserved break, after a busy Spring teaching groups and schools All About Owls. She is currently being “fed up” so she has enough energy to replace her tail and some of her wing feathers.
Taiga and Taz, our pair of Great Grey Owls have opted for a full blow out this year. They laid some eggs earlier in the spring, which we removed and incubated to allow us to hand rear the chicks, which are now in training to join the flying display team. Their aviary looks particularly scruffy, but this is completely natural, as most birds wait until the end of the breeding season (end of Summer) to moult. Despite our best efforts, no sooner do we clear up all the feathers and make it tidy, more appear (a bit like the leaves from the trees which have already started dropping!)
And it’s not just the birds! Our Silver Foxes are going through their junior moult, so Diamond in particular is looking scruffy! They have been using the wooden posts in their enclosure as scratching posts to help remove some of the loose fur, and will soon have a fresh new coat ready for the coming winter.
