Hi Christopher -
For sure it's an aberrant molt. That being said, I'm thinking it's an SY.
I've seen shrikes like this in Colorado. If he were a TY with retained
juvvie
PP coverts and some SS, those feathers would be ALL beat up. But they
show wear typical of an early-hatch SY, one hatched in perhaps March or
April, but with plentiful nutrition so he could afford to replace a lot of
feathers.
Maybe when the weather turned so bad in November and December, he quit
molting. And that's my opinion.
Nice photos, BTW.
Cheers
Susan Craig
On Tue, Feb 15, 2022 at 3:01 PM Kearns, Amy <AKearns@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
That’s neat and I haven’t seen one like that before. I would probably call
it a “more advanced” SY but will love to hear what people with more
expertise think about it.
*Amy Kearns*
Assistant Ornithologist
Indiana Division of Fish & Wildlife
562 DNR Rd Mitchell IN 47446
akearns@xxxxxxxxxx <http://mc/compose?to=akearns@xxxxxxxxxx>
(812) 849-4586 ext. 223 (office)
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On Feb 15, 2022, at 4:13 PM, Christopher Hill <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
I think the folded wings show what to me is the key. This bird has a
retained S3 in the right wing, much browner than the rest of the flight
feathers, clearly a different generation feather from the rest of the
wing. The primary coverts also appear brown and worn. On the left wing it
has retained S3 and S4.
So the question becomes: is it more likely for an adult to fail to
completely replace flight feathers, leaving S3 and S4 as retained older
feathers (this is what Pyle says we should “look for” and he also mentions
the possibility of an adult retaining old primary coverts).
OR is this a young (SY) bird that, in addiation to the usual tertials and
secondary coverts, has replaced all its primaries and all but one or two of
its secondaries, but retained a juvenal secondary and juvenal primary
coverts?
Chris
