My son Jimmie called me from Atlanta recently and said he had a weird red bird at his feeder. He finally identified it as a cardinal with a blue head. He called it a Cardinal Monster. It was not a monster at all, just a cardinal molting his feathers and occasionally cardinals will shed every feather on their heads, revealing a bright blue skin similar to a wild turkey.
According to the Audubon Society, all birds must replace their feathers at least once a year as the old ones wear down. For most birds, molting happens gradually – they lose a few feathers at a time rather than dropping them all at once.
While it may not matter as much for body feathers, most birds will shed flight feathers only as new feathers replace the old. Birds do need to fly, after all. At least, most birds need to fly. Oddly enough, waterfowl are an exception. Able to obtain food and shelter on the water, ducks, geese, and other waterfowl may molt all of their flight feathers at once after breeding and before migration in the fall.
Molting is energy intensive for birds so they will need to eat plenty of food at this time of year. Northern Cardinals are year-round residents, but migratory species will also need to pack on some body fat in preparation for long migratory flights.
Jimmie’s Cardinal Monster will soon grow back the feathers on his head and return to the beautiful black and scarlet-crowned bird he was and is.