My backyard WW family have raised a baby with no tail. Is this common?? Will it grow new feathers? If not, how might it affect it long-term? It doesn't seem to have any affect on it in general but I guess it might affect ability to find a mate if it can't display ...
Would it be genetic or would it have lost it somehow ?? predator miss??
Photo is not great I realise but just had the phone ...
joanne
Hi Joanne. All the very young Willie Wagtails around here are virtually tailless so fear not; this young one will sprout a tail soon & all its taillessness will be behind it.
Like Woko says, all baby birds hatch with tiny or no tails, that's why they struggle to fly at first. Just think about it, if they had a long tail, there wouldn't be enough room in the egg, or in the small nest. Trust us, it will grow.
M-L
Oh thanks that's great! I guess I'm just lucky now to be seeing one so young!
haha tres droll
M-L
Et oui , c’est très drôle. Si vous parlez le Français, moi aussi. Marie-Louise
M-L
how did you get the accents font?? I couldn't see how to do that so reverted to bastard Franglais!! Did you paste in?
Aha! so cute! ( don't know the French for that! I'd need my sister to translate, she's fluent
)
Voici la traduction pour ---cute, c’est –mignon (ne). And yes, I wrote it in words and pasted it. A bientôt M-L
M-L