The Moult: Patience Is A Virtue

MARK JONES advises on feeding native hardbills during the moult, carefully colour feeding after it, and the need to be patient and recognise that birds can be late developers.

- Mark Jones

WHY do birds moult and why in the autumn in our climate? I guess from a periodic need to replace lost or frayed feathers.

Autumn is the season just before the most hostile one, so if you need a good new coat it’s best to get one ready for winter. Also, late summer/early autumn is when there’s food aplenty for the task in hand.

As I write this, most of my birds are well into the moult. The early ones have finished and a few haven’t started yet. The moult can be both a boring and an exciting time. Boring because the birds do little, stop singing and generally look scruffy and at their worst. Exciting because we wait to see how the young birds develop: will they meet our expectations? It’s not just the young birds, as a good or bad moult can make all the difference come the show season.

The moult can transform a bird. Many years ago my father bred a couple of yellow linnet mules. They were good, but not quite good enough. He kept the better bird and after either its third or fourth moult, it was transformed! It ended up with John Ball and was second in a strong class at the Staffordshire BB&MC show. The winner, which had a collar, went on to take best bird in show. It wasn’t as good as John Ball’s bird.