Yesterday afternoon at Stewart Park I saw and heard a/the distinctive Canada X domestic Greylag Goose among Canadas, Mallards, and American Coots in the shallow water and rotting ice at the southeast corner of the lake. This time I also noticed a broad clean white stripe on it between the gray feathers at the bottom of the breast and similar gray feathers on the bird's side & belly. From scope views from shore it appeared to me that this stripe was caused by one or more rows of feathers being completely missing all the way up at least the left side of the bird, such that long white bases of the lower feathers were exposed, rather than white-tipped feathers being present. I'm wondering if others have noticed this pattern on the bird, whether they agree that this is how the stripe is formed, and if so, whether they have an idea why the feathers should be missing so.
--Dave Nutter
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