[texbirds-freelists] Re: [texbirds] Tropical Mockingbird - feather wear in captive birds
- From: MICHAEL PEASE <mpease@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 14:36:18 -0700
Tomorrow that cup of coffee will have been consumed and have no value. Your
opinion, along with Martin Reid's, John Arvin's and Bob Doe's, will still be
golden.
A mountain lion went from South Dakota to Connecticut, dying on a roadway 70
miles from NYC. A wolf lives alone in California after traveling 800 miles
from Oregon. A Snowy Owl went to Honolulu. If it has wings or legs, it can
travel. We don't always know why animals do things-or people for that matter.
In the end, somebody will have a meeting and do little more than guess how the
bird got there. I'm glad I don't have to attend and can just enjoy seeing what
shows up.
Mike Pease
McKinney, Collin County-Still wondering where all the cool migrants are....
--- Fred_Collins@xxxxxxxx wrote:
From: "Collins, Fred (Commissioner Pct. 3)" <Fred_Collins@xxxxxxxx>
To: texbirds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [texbirds] Tropical Mockingbird - feather wear in captive birds
Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:12:46 +0000
Dear all,
Captive birds may or may not show feather wear. I have kept bird for 40 years.
Some of my birds have worn awful feathers and are incapable of flight. They are
the exception though and most have less feather wear than wild birds. Their
molted feathers are less worn than almost any wild molted feather you find. The
reason for this is that in captivity they are protected from the elements, live
in a less hazardous environment and seldom break feathers while feeding,
bathing or fleeing from predators. They do not challenge others of their
species for sexual supremacy as I keep one pair or one bird per cage. They
learn their space and seem to avoid damage to their feathers.
The worst cases of feather wear I have observed were in wild birds. Both so
feather-worn they had become flightless. One was a gull and actually I have
seen a number of examples there. The other was a female redwing blackbird whose
flight feathers were so worn, she was flightless.
Newly captured wild birds placed in cages generally damage their feathers,
often significantly. If the tail damage of the Tropical Mockingbird was cage
related, I would expect to see equal or worse damage to the wings. As a general
rule, when I have observed cage-related feather damage it is always the wings
that take the brunt of the damage in equal or greater proportion to the tail.
The wing feathers of the TRMB at Sabine Woods seem to be in relatively good
shape compared to the tail. Therefore I would look for a different explanation
for the tail feather damage than being cage related.
This opinion and $5 will buy you a cup of coffee now days.
Fred Collins
(281) 357-5324
Director: Kleb Woods Nature Center
Cypress Top Historical Park
Commissioner Steve Radack
Harris County Precinct 3
www.pct3.hctx.net<http://www.pct3.hctx.net>
TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at:
http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds
_____________________________________________________________
*********************
THE WEB'S SOURCE FOR FIRE SERVICE TRAINING
Drill Downloads, Live Events, Article Features & More
http://www.firehouse.com/training/
GET THE BEST FIREFIGHTING CONTENT & FEATURES
Join Firehouse.com's MembersZone Today
http://cms.firehouse.com/launch/
TEXBIRDS help file and Texas birding links at:
http://moonmountaingroup.com/texbirds
Edit your Freelists account settings for TEXBIRDS at
//www.freelists.org/list/texbirds
Other related posts:
