Brood Patch
The little white pile caught our attention. It wasn’t molting season, and this pile of bright white, fresh looking mallard feathers, with their little black speckles and thick down, seemed a bit out of place. But I knew where it likely came from. The winds prior to our current storm system must have blown these from their appointed place. (Speaking of this storm system, Mother’s Day was a long haul of hours of thunder-snow with 7” of wet, heavy, sloppy snow. The internet was down until mid-afternoon, so this posting is late.)
It’s nesting season, of course, and with successful nests come eggs. Eggs need warmth. If Mama Mallard duck were to merely sit on those eggs, the layers of feathers she has - which I wrote about here - would block her body heat from the eggs. So, she makes an adjustment.
Her feathers are attached to the muscle groups in her belly, so that she can shake out the water and re-fluff the down. In the process of laying eggs, though, her body also signals for those muscles to lose hold of the belly feathers, right down to the skin. Mama Mallard pulls them out. These feathers will now go under the eggs for cushioning and insulation. The same signaling causes increased blood flow and some swelling to that area. Now, she has an incubation chamber for these eggs. As she hunkers down on the eggs, she wiggles back and forth to make the best contact between skin and egg to generate the most warmth.
A mother’s body bears the marks of the offspring. (Note: in some species of birds, the males will have this adaptation also.) Like my own 22 1/2-year-old c-section scar, it fades with time and largely from memory (Oooh, that staple removal is seared into my pain memory, though). In the great picture of it all, it’s no sacrifice at all compared with the gain.
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📷 All photos are credit: The Abert Essays unless otherwise noted.
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Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brood_patch
- https://www.birdsoutsidemywindow.org/2010/04/23/anatomy-brood-patch/