Black lines on CBC's feathers?

Hi, all! As many others do, I spent a bunch of time this evening taking pictures of our youngest baby, Chromie. He is a Crimson Bellied Conure, and he's just about 4 & 1/2 months old. I've done a lot of looking around online at pictures of stress bars and other "there is black on my bird's feathers" pictures/conversations, but I can't find anything that matches the black lines on his feathers. They are most definitely not stress bars, as they follow the vanes rather than cut across, and it doesn't appear to be any disease I could find.

It's most definitely not malnutrition. He eats a lot, including plenty of fresh veggies and fruit; his morning food is carrots, peas, corn, green beans, apple, and occasionally some broccoli. In the evening, he gets his treats: a bit of seed/pellet mix, tossed with some yogurt seeds and a Nutriberry. I was worried it could be irritation or being dirty, but he tends to bathe in his bowl once a day, and every other day, we go to the sink and he gets a full on "shower."

His personality has gotten more excitable since we picked him up, not less; his eyes are always clear and alert, so we're not worried he's sick.

Have any of you fine bird-loving folk ever seen these black...not-stress-lines, for lack of a better term? We have two theories: it's the start of a molt, or it's over-preening/excitement. Any advice/previous experience with this would be so appreciated. Pictures taken this very evening are below!







For comparison's sake, here is a picture of him at two months:


And a picture of him at three months:

That's known as 'feather bronzing' and it could just very well be from him playing a little too rough, causing the pigment of his feathers to rub off!


As he goes through his folt molt, the blackened feathers should be replaced with new, healthy feathers!

Oh, so bronzing can look like that, too? Thank you so much! This is such a relief!! He definitely plays a little rough at the moment (we're working on it, but he's young and full of energy), so that explains it. Thank you again!

My CBC looked a lot like that when we got him when he was 7 months old. As his new, adult feathers started coming in, they came in without the black

It sure can!


Young birds and birds that play rough usually tend to end up with the most bronzing! As long as they are in fact healthy, it's nothing to worry about!