Eagles have always been fascinating birds of prey. Their magnificence is worth the praise. Want to know a fun fact? Eagles change their feathers every year! It’s like us changing clothes, but only once a year.
Eagles annually shed their feathers slowly and grow new, beautiful, and smooth ones to replace them, which makes them appealing to others. This process is called the “Eagle Molting Process.” Moreover, this process consists of three primary phases, all playing important roles in molting.
Doesn’t it make you think about how this process happens and what actually happens throughout the phases? We were curious too and got into researching. We found so many cool facts you’ll definitely love to know!
Eagle Molting Process: 3 Primary Phases
The molting process of an eagle doesn’t happen overnight, just like how Rome wasn’t built in a day because every beautiful thing in nature takes time to grow and rise.
An eagle goes through three important molting phases throughout spring, summer, and fall seasons: The preparation phase, the Awkward phase, and the Finished product phase.
All three molting phases are essential for eagles because new feathers help them fly at optimum speeds, waste less energy while flying, and are a great attraction for mating season.
So, let’s go through the process of how each phase takes place!
The Preparation Phase
Before getting into the preparation phase, let’s first learn how eagle feathers change from when they first hatch to being mature.
When a baby eagle first hatches, you’ll see white fluffy snow-like plumage on their body. It doesn’t cover them properly but gives some protection from heat and cold. This plumage stage is known as the “Natal Down.” This fluffy white plumage may look cute, but those babies can’t fly with it.
After the “Natal Down,” the baby eagles start growing gray feathers in the “Thermal Down” process. This process starts as early as one week after they hatch.
We noticed that these grayish feathers have a complex structure, but these still aren’t suitable for the babies to start flying.
Eagle younglings are then stuck with this plumage for three to four weeks. But after a long wait, Juvenile feathers replace this grayish plumage and give the babies a new look.
Juvenile feathers show that the eagle is enough matured to take its first flight because these feathers are healthy, and these grow on them to become basic adult feathers as they mature.
All these stages of Natal Down, Thermal Down, and finally, Juvenile Feathers are all compact and rapid molting processes of a young eagle. It’s just like us and how our fashion sense and style change at different ages as we grow up!
Now, after all the young molting stages, the eagle reaches its final molting process that takes place every year, and the preparation phase is only the initial phase.
Here’s a fun fact for you! Did you know the eagle molting process is actually controlled by their hormones? We thought it was the season that did it, but we’re proven wrong.
These hormones are associated with the length of the days. Confused? Let us put it in simple words. As the day becomes longers, an eagle’s hormones change and start the molting process.
So, in the preparation phase, an eagle starts slowly shedding its old feathers and waits for the new feathers to kick in, but it doesn’t happen until the other phases take place.
The Awkward Phase
The awkward phase is next in line after the preparation phase. In this phase, the eagle has a mix of its old and a few new feathers. We can all imagine how this look may not be serving!
We have all had this awkward phase in our lives, maybe in middle or high school. This can also feel like when you get a fresh haircut, and it doesn’t look that great at first, but as hair grows, the cut looks amazing.
So, eagles face this phase rather in an extreme way as they have bald spots and lose almost all old feathers to make room for new feathers. But, the awkward phase is a tough one as feathers, like our hair, take time to grow.
In this stage, we saw that eagles look really patchy, ragged, and messy, but this is totally normal. However, it makes their lives a lot harder to survive and even hunt.
Eagles experience flying difficulties as their wings can become unbalanced and uneven in weight due to shedding feathers. Moreover, with unbalanced wings comes low flying speeds and problematic hunting attempts.
However, the problems aren’t as extreme as we might think because, in this awkward phase, eagles lose about 40% of their entire body weight, which balances out the loss of feathers.
Eagles will then groom and preen themselves for the new feathers to grow healthy and beautiful. They also do this to spread “preen oil” all over their feathers to keep them healthy.
Well, preen oil is a wax-like coating that covers an eagle’s feathers, and when they groom themselves, they spread it out all over their body. Moreover, it’s a great way to welcome the beauty that’s about to arise!
The Finished Product
Now for the finished product, eagles wait for after all the shedding takes place. This phase is like when you just got your hair or nails done and want to show them off because you feel confident!
The new feathers on an eagle look absolutely majestic and smooth. These new feathers are more stronger than their old ones and help them soar through the sky with minimal energy.
Did you know adult eagles have about 7,000 feathers on their body, which weigh about 20 ounces? Surprising, right? Eagle species are known to have the most plumage variations among all other birds.
Even though there are literally thousands of feathers on their body, it doesn’t hamper their flying speeds or hunting skills. This is because the feathers are lightweight yet strong enough to let them fly at speeds of 150 miles/hour. Our minds just blew!
Additionally, the feathers aren’t only efficient but also great for mating season preparation. It’s like when we dress up for a date to look more attractive and charming, these feathers give the same confidence to the eagles for their mating season in October.
With their new shiny and smooth feathers, eagles look more appealing to their counterparts. It increases their chances of finding a partner through romantic courtship during the mating season, and why shouldn’t they be confident? They literally have been preparing for months for this very season!
So, you can say that all that awkward phase was actually worth it!
Conclusion
We can’t deny eagles are majestic birds of prey. Their molting process consisting of the preparation phase, the awkward phase, and the finished product, gives us more reasons to admire this bird species.
By now, you know that these molting stages of an eagle are important for them to grow healthy new feathers for flying and mating season. Although it’s a long process that takes place over a couple of months, the eagles benefit from it in many ways.
Natural processes like this fascinate us every time, and we hope we explained everything properly. Because if we did, we know you now want to know about more natural processes of various animals. So, happy exploring!
