Birds generally molt once or twice a year, usually after the breeding season. New feathers form underneath the old ones, pushing them out. Most birds don't lose all their feathers at once, since that would make them much too vulnerable to predators and disease; instead, new ones grow in as others fall out. Peanut almost always has one or two pin feathers on his head — these are the sheaths around a new, forming feather. Of course, he depends on me to preen the feathers he can't reach himself. The Finsters, on the other hand, have each other to perform this delicate task, and they're much better at it than I am! I don't think I've ever seen a Finster with pin feathers, and except for finding more feathers on the floor of the Finsterium, I usually don't know when they're molting. The one exception is Sally. I always know when she's molting, because she looks ragged. The close-up of her at the top of this entry (taken yesterday) doesn't even show her at her worst. The first time she went through a molt I was about ready to take her to the vet. Even now that I've seen her live through it several times, I get worried. Usually she's so beautiful.