Okay, but why does that bird look so rough?

E39. Every August the questions start: there is a cardinal at the feeder with no head feathers, and it looks terrible. Nothing is wrong with it. It is molting, which every bird does at least every year. Dr. Ryan Terrill of the San Diego Natural History Museum studies what a feather endures over a year and what it takes to replace one, and he makes the case that the few weeks a bird spends looking its worst may be the most consequential weeks it has.

In this episode, you'll hear about:

Why the cardinal at your feeder in late summer looks like it lost a fight

What a bird quietly gives up during the weeks it is growing new feathers

The hundreds of miles some birds fly for the sake of a new set of feathers

All audio, video, and images in this episode are either original to Okay, But... Birds (© Okay Media, LLC) or used under license/permission from the respective rights holders. Media from the Macaulay Library is used courtesy of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology as follows:

Northern Cardinal audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML191165

American Goldfinch audio contributed by Wil Hershberger, ML94457

Blue Jay audio contributed by Gaetan Dupont, ML173749

Herring Gull audio contributed by Sarah MacLean, ML165927

American Herring Gull video contributed by Steve Kelling, ML540908261

Snow Bunting audio contributed by Gerrit Vyn, ML130973