I have a young female blackbird(born this year) who has no feathers on her head and one swollen weepy eye. The rest of her plummage is fine, she flies well but can lose balance when she lands. The feathers on the underside of her neck are thin.
She is extremely tame and quite adorable but I am assuming there is little I can do to help her. However, I thought I would just check with you more knowledgeable folk.
J
Hi Jessie,
A photograph of the bird would be useful in order to make more useful input about her condition, but the loss of feathers on her head and neck may just be due to her moulting into adult plumage.
Moulting should be a gradual process of replacing old feathers with new, but occasionally birds will drop many feathers before the new ones have properly formed, resulting in the temporary bald or generally tatty look.
Valley Forge Native Wildlife Refuge
Hello Valleyforge,
I will try and take a photo soon .... many thanks,
I am sorry that I am unable to supply you with any help or advice on your young blackbird's problem.
We have a regular blackbird's nest in the shrubbery/hedge of our front garden here in Cornwall. We also have farmland and some small woodland areas around us.
Over the last two years we have witnessed a Sparrow Hawk capture and fly off with one of "our" fledgling blackbirds. Distressing, but that's nature!
This year we were horrified and amazed to witness (from our dining room window) the Sparrow Hawk descend into our garden and kill the adult male blackbird. He proceeded to pluck and partly devour the poor bird while being bombarded by the hen blackbird for some 10 - 15 mins. All this going on only about 15 - 20 ft. away from us. He then flew off with the partially eaten corpse. Phew!! What an amazing spectacle!
It's all around us - 24/7 :-)
Yesterday, whilst putting out the daily mealworm treats, the 'tame' female Blackbird started hoovering them up as fast as I could sprinkle them. I noticed that she had very few feathers in her neck, and she too, had what appeared to be a manky eye.
I looked her over carefully before she hopped away, and there didn't appear to be any other feathers out of place or missing. She is the same bird that has been visiting for a couple of years now, but i've not seem her in this sorry state before.
Could she have been attacked by a cat?
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of another. Charles Dickens.
Hi,
Sadly my tatty blackbird has disappeared... I have a feeling one of my neighbours voracious cats got her.
However, I'm pretty sure she was a youngster and that her lack of feathers and weepy eye was something she "had" rather than an effect of an attack of some sorts. She was a dear little thing and I quite miss her coming for her daily mealworms!
Jessie said: I have a young female blackbird(born this year) who has no feathers on her head and one swollen weepy eye. The rest of her plummage is fine, she flies well but can lose balance when she lands. The feathers on the underside of her neck are thin. She is extremely tame and quite adorable but I am assuming there is little I can do to help her. However, I thought I would just check with you more knowledgeable folk. J
I have two young blackbirds with very few feathers on their heads so hopefully it is as valleyforge suggests. Both of the Blackbirds seem in good health and are stripping the grapevine at an alarming rate (no wine again this year!)
Build it and they will come.