Bald blue jays may start showing up at your feeder

Though that bald blue jay at your feeder this time of year may look a bit odd, experts say it’s nothing out of the ordinary.

The bird is a common northern blue jay. For most of the year, this Maine songbird can be easily recognized by its intense blue body with white and black upper body, gray underbody, black ring around the neck and the perky crest on its head.

But come fall, that crest vanishes leaving the jay looking a bit worse for wear.

This is the time of year that many species of songbirds in Maine are molting — getting rid of their old feathers to make room for new ones to grow. For most of these birds they lose the feathers a few at a time. But the northern blue jay loses all of its head feathers at once. It’s natural and not an indication of an unhealthy bird.

Molting takes a lot of a bird’s energy, said Doug Hitchcox, naturalist at Maine Audubon. That’s why most of them do it several or even one at a time. They can do this because each feather, or collection of feathers grows out of individual patches of skin. These are called feather tracts.

“All of the body feathers and flight feathers on the wing and tail can take a long time to grow back in,” Hitchcox said. “The whole process can take 100 to 120 days, especially for one of the larger birds like the blue jay.”

It’s a slow process, but one that saves the bird from having all of its feathers falling out at once. That, Hitchcox said, would leave it flightless and exposed to the elements.

Unfortunately for the blue jay — at least in terms of appearance — all of its head feathers grow from a single tract. So when one falls out, they all fall out, leaving it temporarily bald. This also happens with cardinals, but is far less common.

“With the blue jay, the head feathers are called the capital tract,” Hitchcox said. “There is really no other place on the body you would want to lose all your feathers.”

He said this time of year Audubon receives reports about the bald blue jays that people fear are sick.

While it’s normal for this time of year as well as in late summer, seeing a balding bird in spring or early summer can be a sign of something else.

“The other thing that can cause baldness are feather mites,” Hitchox said. “These mites actually eat the feathers off the birds.”

The mites will concentrate on the bird’s head because it is unable to preen or clean itself there. Unlike molting, the feather loss pattern due to mites is splotchy or patchy.

Not every blue jay will go through the full head molt, so you may never see a bald one. But when you do, it can make an impression, Hitchcox said.

“We know from research that modern birds are the closest thing we have to dinosaurs,” he said. “A bald blue jay really has that stereotypical dinosaur look.”

Julia Bayly is a reporter at the Bangor Daily News with a regular bi-weekly column. Julia has been a freelance travel writer/photographer since 2000. More by Julia Bayly