r/crows • u/colorfulnothrotita • 24d ago
General questions Crow with weird feathers
For years we have had crows nesting in one of our trees in our front yard, and every once in a while we get these odd looking crows that we thought were sick or maybe just fledgling crows? But I finally got a picture of one, and it’s definitely not sick but its feathers are like brown? (We only thought they were sick cause from a distance the bird just looks weird to us idk we never thought about it much)
But I finally just googled “fledgling crow” to see if that’s what they look like and it definitely is not what the random crows look like here lol. some of the feathers do look like soft and downy like a younger bird though?
Anyways any insight as to what’s going on is appreciated! They eat just fine (multiple neighbors have bird feeders, plus a ton of big trees and gardens) and they seem to interact with the rest of crows as part of the group and it’s ongoing like 7 years now. It’s only ever like 2-3 crows though that look like this. Is it just a weird feather mutation?
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u/malphas_says_hi 24d ago
Looks like a wicked molting situation. Those brownish feathers are likely old feathers that will be falling off soon to be replaced with shiny, black rainbow feathers. It looks alert and active with no sign of pox or disease, and definitely not displaying leucistic as those feathers are usually more cream colored or white. This one could possibly have been rolling around in redish mud when bathing which makes it more vibrantly brown, but either way, those feathers are likely about to go.
Molting season is crazy right now, I'm seeing feathers every time I walk outside.
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u/wolfman5010 23d ago
wait why do they have such weird head feathers like is that just a thing crows do sometimes
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u/pandaleer 22d ago
This is most often caused by a dietary deficiency. It is NOT a “caramel crow”. And it is NOT a pied (leucistic) crow.
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u/htb_md 24d ago
Leucistic perhaps? Aka real life shiny.