broken feathers

[que_serasara]

There's this bird that my boyfriend and i raised. She's to the point where she's staying outside full time and we feed her here and there. But she mostly finds her own food throughout the neighborhood.

A couple of weeks ago we noticed that a couple of her primary wing feathers was broken and dangling from her wing. We didn't think much of it. But now she's lost all of her primary feathers on that wing, and is starting to lose the secondary ones. She doesn't really fly anymore. She runs a lot, and hops sometimes.

Does anyone know if these feathers will grow back, and if so how long it could take?

[Clive Watson]

I'm not an expert but at this time of year birds will be moulting their feathers anyway. That said, it shouldn't moult all its flight feathers at once, most bird (apart from ducks) do it gradually so as to maintain the power of flight. Unless the bird is poorly in some other way the feathers should grow back but it'll take a few weeks and you'll need to provide some kind of secure area for overnight roosting if it really can't fly.

What kind of bird is it by the way?

[que_serasara]

she is a european starling. She's living in my boyfriends neighborhood. And seems to be pretty safe at night. She sleeps in low trees and bushes.

I haven't been over there in a few days, so I don't know how she is doing.

The thought of molting had crossed my mind, but yes she's lost so many at once. She's also a baby and I was thinking that she might be just loosing them to grow her adult feathers, but then again, it was all at once.

She doesn't like to be confined, so i dont think she'd be down with being kept somewhere at night.