Will the feathers grow back? And in how much time? It’s not a pet. I was just putting him in a safe place for the night. It was it’s 2nd night in my backyard.
Hi,
The feathers will grow back, but the concern is how well can the bird fly. They need their tail feathers to navigate. A dove’s tail feathers will release if a predator is trying to catch it. So it’s nothing you did wrong, since you were trying to keep it safe, it just happened. This is most likely an involuntary defense mechanism. Sometimes all the feathers come out and while the dove may have escaped that attack, not having tail feathers can make it vulnerable. If the bird is not flying well, you may need to contact a wildlife center to take it in until the feathers regrown.
https://www.nwrawildlife.org/page/Found_Injured_Wildlife
Thank you for asking Lafeber,
Brenda
