From a parking lot today, I noticed several feathers on the ground. I have been watching the crows (Corvus brachyrhynchos) from this certain parking lot for several months now as I walk by. They have just finished their mating season and there are juvenile crows and crow feathers all over the area. The youngsters have recently hatched, grown their flight feathers, and fledged the nests. Now they spend their time trying to figure out how life works by testing out what’s good to eat, how their wings work, and what a dangerous situation looks like.

Winter existence, mating, and nesting are all high-energy activities for adult crows. Once the nestlings are fledged the adults spend the next several weeks regaining their energy and living the easy life that springtime affords with abundant food resources and warmer weather. During this time, they begin to molt their flight feathers and tail feathers and regrow them one-by-one. This process ensures the bird can still fly — although some species like female hornbills will drop all of their feathers at once leaving them flightless and at risk. The process of molting can take several weeks and is finally finished by the end of summer. This feather is a primary wing feather from the bird’s left wing.  It is feather number 2 indicating that the molting has recently begun since the process starts with feathers numbered 1 (see the diagram below). 

Birds molt for several reasons, but almost every species of bird molts before breeding to be more attractive, and again after breeding to signify the completion of breeding and enable migration in the fall (although this particular species doesn’t migrate). So here we have the proof that breeding season is over for this bird, at least!