Molting vs Plucking Feathers

[reeisconfused]

Hello everyone!
I was cleaning today when I found this feather in the balcony. Max spends quite some time sitting out in the sun everyday. Our balcony is meshed. My question is, how do you differentiate between molting and plucking? Do the feathers look different when molting vs when plucked? It’s winter so I don’t think it’s molting season. Max has never plucked before. I’m kind of worried here.

I’ve been reading up online and I don’t think this is a plucked feather but I’m not sure. Any advice is appreciated.
Thank you.

[Incase the photo doesn’t show up, here’s the link to it - https://ibb.co/f85oKq ]

 

[ChristaNL]

You picture also did not show up in the link- but I think there are some pictures in the (huge) thread about plucking you can use for comparison.

Usually a molted feather is not bitten in several pieces, and never has any blood on the end that normally is beneath the skin.

Many parrots will chew on/ play with their molted feathers- so the only way to know for sure...is to see it happening.

 

[SailBoat]

As so well stated above, plucked feathers will have slight differences from a molted feather. But, the sad reality is that whether molted or plucked, they can also look much the same. NOTE: Healthy Parrots molt Flight surface feathers (wing and Tail) and large body feathers year around.

A single feather does not a Plucker make. After all, an active Parrot can cause a lone feather to become twisted /turned-over and if not able to return it to its proper position, they will simple pull it.

Its a life time of watching. Welcome to the crazy Parrot People World!

 

[noodles123]

Often times, a molt is gradual and symmetrical--There will not be bald patches of skin 99% of the time. Feather plucking tends to focus on one or more specific areas and over-preening is usually the precursor to plucking (but not always). Sometimes, people will call it over-barbering or barbering.


That picture of the feather alone is not really enough to say one way or the other. It really depends on behavioral patterns etc. Some birds will also pluck a single feather if the feather itself is injured or irritated.

 

[reeisconfused]

ChristaL, SailBoat, Noodles

Thank you for your response! I am almost sure that Max didn’t pluck but it is always better to be safe than sorry. Max came with a lot of behavioural issues so it wouldn’t be surprising if he started plucking from the stress. He also starts overpreening sometimes and I have to distract him from that.
Once again, thank you.

 

[reeisconfused]

Update:
Max has been losing more feathers. Today, he was doing his laps - he flies from one end of the hall to the other and back and forth a few times lol (he loves doing that) when his tail feather fell right in the palm of my hand.
I can only assume that this is a molt, but I’m not sure. Is it uncommon for birds to molt in winter? I read online that sometimes bird undergo a partial molt in winter, is this true?