I am thinking mites but not sure. Found this poor bird at lost Lagoon...

I've seen him there too, he's been like that for at least a few months. Poor bird!

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Else Mikkelsen
Vancouver, B.C.

yes, I have some pictures of him too. Took a few a couple of weeks ago. Looks like he has some kind of disease. I'm guessing he was dipping head first somewhere where there's polluted water by the looks of how his feathers are missing. I thought at the time he may not make it another season. Hope he recovers though.

Yep, I have seen the poor guy many times over the last several months and he keeps losing more and more of his feathers. The feather loss originally appeared just on his head, believe it or not. I talked to the Stanley Park Ecology Society and they told me that they're watching him but since it seems to be an isolated case and isn't spreading to any other ducks (fortunately), they're taking a hands-off approach. At least it's warmer now. The worst was when it was still really cold and he was always trying to tuck his poor naked head under his wing.

It makes me feel awful to see him like that, but since he is clearly still eating and can fly and swim just fine, there really isn't a good way to catch him. I just hope he starts to get better.

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"Japanese scientists from Keio University have found that pigeons have self-cognitive abilities higher than 3-year-old humans. " (link)