The Tale of a Hummingbird's Tail

Oct. 9, 2024: An unusual hummingbird missing all of its tail feathers

Male Broad-billed Hummingbirds are arguably the most beautiful hummingbirds in the United States.  According to the allaboutbirds site, with proper lighting, their "vivid red bill, emerald body, and glittering sapphire throat sets it apart from other U.S. hummingbirds."  In other light, it is a very dark bird but its notched tail sets it apart from other US hummingbirds.  The long notched tail is clearly evident in the photo below.

We were watching the hummingbirds on the back porch and one in particular continued to perch where we could easily see it.

That day, it spent quite a bit of time preening on that perch.  Birds spend much time daily preening. This feather maintenance helps to clean the feathers as well as to realign them for flight performance.  Looking closely, you can see the one little feather the hummingbird was working on at that moment.  As we watched him, suddenly, we realized that this Broad-billed Hummingbird was missing all of its tail feathers!

This healthy looking bird seemed to be in great shape.  It was active and, in fact, very aggressive protecting two of the feeders on the back porch. Its flight did not look impacted by the missing feathers.

Hummingbirds have ten tail feathers.  During a molt, they usually lose their tail feathers in pairs, beginning with the inner pairs.  After those feathers begin growing back the bird may molt the next pair, and so on.  There should always be feathers in place.

It's possible this bird lost all of its tail feathers in a fight with another aggressive hummingbird. Some suggest it lost its tail feathers to a predator.  In any case, this is not a very common occurrence.  I had two questions:  first, what happened to this bird's tail feathers?  I will never learn that answer.

 The second question was:  Is it going to regrow its tail feathers?  I became a bit obsessed with this bird, looking for it daily.  It was easy to spot, not due to its missing tail, but to its regular habit of guarding those two feeders and then using several different perches repeatedly.

I was hoping the bird would remain in the yard and not migrate or move elsewhere.  As long as the bird continued to stay around, I had a chance to learn whether or not the feathers would regrow or whether perhaps the feather follicles were damaged preventing new feathers from growing.

The Broad-billed Hummingbird certainly appeared aware of my presence.  Here, he seems to be saying "Watch me!!"  So I did.

After two weeks, I noticed something.  Pictures to follow.............