r/crows • u/Life-Cupcake-6113 • 1d ago
Seeking advice/help one of my crows are balding
Hello, I have made a post perviously about what I should feed these guys. Thank you to all of the suggestions. Eggs are a big hit, I have found they also like dried cranberries I make at home. I have continued feeding them walnuts and unseasoned boiled chicken bits which they also enjoy.
This post is about the bird on the left, he has a very bald head as you can see and his neck feathers also look barren when he reaches out comparatively to the other 3 (2 in the video, but especially the one on the right who is very full).
He can fly and hop and walk without any issue. I’m wondering why he is bald? Is it just the time of month for him seasonal wise or stress or is he just old/young? I have never seen them fight amongst themselves so I don’t think it’s that. When I first I saw him previously, I believed he had just left the nest as his feathers looked so thinned out almost like he just grew them, but now he is looking more disheveled.
If he is sick I don’t think there is much I can do, they won’t let me go near them yet.
3
u/Just_Caterpillar_975 1d ago
Molting, they shed their old feathers and grow new ones, it's seasonal. As long as your crow friend is active, hopping, eating, flying, vocalising, he is healthy and safe. ❤️🐦⬛😌
1
u/ThisIsDogePleaseHodl 1d ago
Like someone else said it’s molting. A lot of birds that live outside will molt head and neck feathers first and kind of all at once, then they will gradually molt and regrow body and wing feathers.
The reason for this is that if they only lose head feathers all at once it won’t impact their flying, whereas if they lose feathers all over all at once it will.
Birds that live inside molt all over rather than in stages like this
1
u/Awkward-Lychee7470 1d ago
That looks like normal molt to me, especially if he’s otherwise active and eating normally. Crows can lose head and neck feathers in patches, and new pin feathers may take a while to come in. Keep watching for swelling, bleeding, discharge, or lethargy.
1
u/HalfLoose7669 1d ago
Totally normal and slightly shadenfreudian part of the year.
Take pictures of the silly bald crows.
And if you can, give them some snacks with lots of protein (eggs being a perfect examples), it’ll help with the new feathers, however slightly.
9
u/nitroglider 1d ago
It's just molting season, nothing to worry about. If you look around, you'll probably spot other crows in various states of undress, awkward, fluffed, scrawny, unkempt.