Under the wings

[neoow]

I have a weird request. 😂

Has anyone got photos of underneath their grey's wings including the body?
I've always suspected that Alfie 'over-preens' that area, as the feathers on his body underneath his wings always look a little tatty and he often preens under there- more so that other areas. I'm just curious about what that area looks like on other birds.
His wings look ok from what I can see (I only ever see them when he stretches as he doesn't let me handle his wings).
I don't think he is plucking, as such because the whole area is covered in feathers and doesn't look patchy or sore- the feathers are just never as neat as the rest of his body. I also don't have a pile of feathers left at the bottom of the cage.

[SRSeedBurners]

GreycieMae does weird requests!  Second photo came out a little blurry...   Huey looks nearly identical to her.

 

Edited August 13, 2018 by SRSeedBurners

[neoow]

Amazing, thank you! I knew Greycie wouldn't let me down! 😁

[neoow]

I managed to get a sneaky photo as Alfie was stretching and getting ready to sleep. It's not great but hopefully helps to show what I'm going on about.

When his wings are down you can't see these feathers. But he preens them a lot and you can see they are quite separated and tatty compared to his other feathers.

I don't think he's plucking them out as I can't see any bald areas. I'm fairly certain any feathers that do drop out are due to a natural moult and not being pulled/plucked. I've never noticed any damage to the feathers I have checked after they fall out.

It's been like this for as long as I can remember and he's always preened himself a lot in that area (on both sides). He preens the rest of his feathers too but nowhere else on his body looks like this.

I'm not sure if this is anything to worry about. He baths in his water bowl (refuses to bath in anything bigger despite my best efforts of finding an alternative!) and I try and mist him regularly- though perhaps I need to do this more often. Under the wing is the trickiest part for me to get as he rarely opens his wings for me to mist and he will always put his face in the way of the spray.

[SRSeedBurners]

That definitely looks like some over-preening there.  I wouldn't worry about it though.   GreycieMae barbers her tail and wing feathers.   It used to annoy me but I figure once they get into a naughty habit it's just like us biting our nails or some other habit.   I'll get a pic of her barbering when I get a chance.

[Timbersmom]

Timber does the same on his "underarms."