Some of the birds in your backyard may look unkempt if not downright scraggly, as though their clothes have worn out.
Birds, of course, are clothed in feathers, and feathers do wear out. The gorgeous, eye-catching plumage you saw in spring and for most of summer has begun to fade and look tattered from being bleached by sunlight, scraped against tree limbs and scarred by dust and gravel.
Think of the wear and tear on the feathers of a bird such as a western scrub-jay, which must continuously slip in and out of a nest placed deep within a tough-barked Hill Country shrub. Or a downy woodpecker in Southeast Texas that makes untold trips to a nest inside a tree hole excavated just underneath a vertically leaning limb.
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