At this time of the year,
you might see birds that look a bit scary, rugged, even sick or somewhat familiar and you just cannot put your finger on what species they belong to. This means we are in the middle of molting season. Molting means either an adult bird loses older feathers and grows new ones or a juvenile bird is growing the first adult plumage. I love this time of the year because you get to study bird anatomy a bit and you might see some spectacular patterns, textures and color combos. Here are two examples of juvies changing to adult feathers (Cowbird and Starling) and two for adult molts (Blue Jay and Grackle). They will all look smooth again in a bit.
