May 24, 2026
Nature Done Wright
Incorporating the Celery Farm and Screech Owl Companion blogs
Monday Mystery Answered
What species of bird did these feathers belong to, and which species of bird was the likely predator?
The consensus answer was a Blue Jay killed by a Cooper's Hawk. I agree.
An interesting webpage on why some of the feathers don't look bluer is here. (I should have turned them over so you could see the difference.)
1 comment
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Wow. I was fooled! You are right. I could not see any color blue on my Mac screen. I was sure I could see some blush colored feathers and believed that the tail feathers looked just like a Mourning Dove’s. I should have paid more attention to the size of the Maple seed next to the pile of feathers! Funny how the mind sees what it expects to see. My very first thought was Mourning Dove when I saw the photo, so I made everything else fit.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/id





1 comment
Janet T
Wow. I was fooled! You are right. I could not see any color blue on my Mac screen. I was sure I could see some blush colored feathers and believed that the tail feathers looked just like a Mourning Dove’s. I should have paid more attention to the size of the Maple seed next to the pile of feathers! Funny how the mind sees what it expects to see. My very first thought was Mourning Dove when I saw the photo, so I made everything else fit.
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mourning_Dove/id