Blue Jay's Feathers Molting in Real Time

Or in this case maybe "flying feathers" ! It is pretty common to see so-called bald-headed Blue Jays and other songbirds like Cardinals and Brown Thrashers without head feathers in late summer as they undergo their seasonal molt.
Often the head feathers all fall out at about the same time giving the birds the “Vulture Look”.
Jays change out all of their other feathers to - its just rarely seen - their flight feathers are swapped out a few at a time so they can continue to fly well to forage, feed, roost and avoid predators.
In this rare slow-motion footage at the mountain spring we can see a Blue Jay lose two flight feathers during a vigorous bath – one from each wing. In fact this vigorous bathing my be done to help clear off these loose feathers which may be a little itchy.

Late July and August is the time you are most likely to find blue jay feathers laying around the yard and it doesn't mean a bird or cat got them unless they are a lot of them in a pile, but you'll also notice these found feathers can look pretty beat up as these flight feathers are worn out and that's why they need to be replaced.
An excellent reference for bird feather ID is “The Feather Atlas” from the US Fish and Wildlife: https://www.fws.gov/lab/featheratlas/
Filmed with Campark T100 Trail Camera available at: https://shrsl.com/3nywk
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