Why do birds cast their feathers?
The most sensible clothing of the entire animal kingdom is worn by the birds. What’s more, some of them wear the most gorgeous attire in the world. However, birds spend a lot of time preening their plumage and at least once a year all their feathers must be replaced with new ones. Discarded feathers are strewn around most often in the fall, after the nesting season, when many birds are preparing to fly south to warmer winter climates.. We also find lots of their lost feathers in springtime, at the beginning of the nesting season. Almost always, the birds cast these feathers because new ones are growing in to replace them. A lost feather may appear, at least to our eyes, to be in good condition. You may think that it is sheer extravagance for the bird to cast away perfectly good clothing in this way. But this is not true at all. The voice of nature does not in¬struct her children to waste the good things provided for them. After months of heavy duty, each fragile feather is either worn
