Having Your Tail Scared Off

When a hawk is about to capture a songbird, the songbird has one last trick: a fright molt. It’s when a bird loses feathers due to sudden stress. This usually involves feathers near the tail or rump, where they’re most likely to be attacked as they flee. It can be a saving grace when the bird is about to be caught — similar to a lizard dropping its tail. There’s a downside to having your tail scared off. A tail helps the bird turn and balance in flight. But if dropping feathers lets the bird live to chirp another day, it’s worth it.

BirdNote^®

Having Your Tail Scared Off

Written by Conor Gearin

This is BirdNote.

A female Northern Cardinal plucks a black oil sunflower seed from a feeder.

[Northern Cardinal calls]

Just then, a Cooper’s Hawk in a nearby tree dives at the cardinal!

[Cooper’s Hawk call]

With little time to react, the cardinal has one last line of defense. As the hawk’s talons close around her tail feathers, they shed and detach. The hawk flaps away with a bundle of feathers, and the cardinal hurries off to hide in a bush.

[Northern Cardinal female song]

This defensive tactic is called a fright molt: when a bird loses feathers due to sudden stress. This usually involves feathers near the tail or rump, where they’re most likely to be attacked as they flee. It can be a saving grace when the bird is about to be caught — similar to a lizard dropping its tail.

There’s a downside to having your tail scared off. A tail helps the bird turn and balance in flight. But if dropping feathers lets the bird live to chirp another day, it’s worth it.

Fortunately, the cardinal can regrow her tail. Sometimes the first feathers to grow back are unpigmented and white until they’re replaced by the next regular feather molt. It may not be high fashion, but it’s better than ending up as a meal for a hawk.

[Northern Cardinal female song]

For BirdNote, I’m Ariana Remmel.

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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Content Director: Allison Wilson
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Thanks to Katie Meyer for this idea.
Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Northern Cardinal ML 337365371 recorded by J. Holmes, Northern Cardinal ML 221179231 recorded by W. Hershberger, and Cooper’s Hawk ML 231229351 recorded by A. Spencer.
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2022 BirdNote June 2022 Narrator: Ariana Remmel

ID# molt-04-2022-06-17 molt-04

References
https://www.massaudubon.org/learn/nature-wildlife/birds/color-abnormali…

https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/17/6/1046/319763
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sievert-Rohwer/publication/3012182…
https://meridian.allenpress.com/wjo/article-abstract/132/2/476/459596/H…