Guess my post got deleted with other spam. Here is a pic of my son with his tailless bird. The bird had a good beard, 10.25" and spurs were just under an inch.
Vic

Short tail there for sure. I killed a bird in Idaho with a short tail like that some years ago. The farmer who let me hunt this bird referred to the bird as" Stubby".He said he hit a young poult with a hay mower, and is sure that Stubby was the bird he hit and Stubbys tail area was so damaged from the blow that the tail never regrew. Perhaps your sons bird suffered some serious injury as well . A read-end accident so to speak

Begs the question.. can they fly without a tail??

I'm guessing they can enough to get up to roost at least.. otherwise I can't see one making it to adulthood like that.

Last time I saw Dale he sure didn't have that full beard

I called a bird in for my cousin about 10 years ago that had no tail feathers. It had pieces of quills but the main feathers were gone. Since the base of the fan was left I figured a fox or yote got hold of the tail when it took off and ripped the feathers out. I didn't think of a hay mower, that would certainly do it. So this is the second bird I've seen without. I think they can fly, just not well.

As for the beard, Dale is going to be a woolly lad. Hopefully not with the back hair like my wife's side of the family. You could run corn rows on BILs back. Guess the beard is why he chose the nickname Wolfvman. It's pretty dang thick too.

V

Vic, sorry I may have cropped it accidentally when I had all of that spam on here the other day. Congrats. I have seen a few like that also. You never know what can cause that. Predator etc. Still a great bird and one you'll remember.