Tale of a Tail

Or rather, a lack of a tail.

The more barred doves (aka zebra doves) I see during my walks at the beach parks, the more varieties I come across.

Check out this tail-less variety. Zebradovus notailus. It's rare, it's the first of its kind I've seen.

All kidding aside, I wonder what happened to this poor thing. And so I speculate: Maybe it got into a fight with a bigger dove (I've seen spotted doves chase and peck at their smaller cousins until feathers fly). Maybe it has a genetic deficiency? I doubt that; a baby tail-less dove wouldn't survive to this size, I think.

Maybe some hipster dove talked him (or her) into getting his (or her) tail feathers plucked. Y'know, the way women have their eyebrows plucked. A dove cosmetician, perhaps?

Nah. That's too silly to even mention. So I won't.

Still ...