Why do birds look fat in winter and thin in the summer?  Have they lost weight?

No.  They’re trying to stay cool.

Underneath their smooth outer feathers birds wear down coats all year long.  The down keeps them especially warm when they fluff it out to hold more heat next to the skin.  This fluffing makes them look fat on cold winter days.

When it’s hot, they can’t take off their down coats so they force hot air out of the down by compressing their outer feathers.  This makes them look thin.

The cardinal on the left, above, is not the thinnest one I’ve ever seen.  Cris Hamilton took his picture in May when the temperature was pleasant.  He’ll look considerably thinner this month.

It’s just another way that birds cope with heat.

p.s. We think of down as white but on a northern cardinal it’s black.  Click here to see a northern cardinal’s body feather, called a semi-plume, black at the root and red at the tip.

(photos by Cris Hamilton)