Penny is in full moult and will be unable to fly for another month, she always moults first at this time, while Popeye is still able to fly until penny regrows her flight feathers. This is nature's way of ensuring that one of them can always fly to defend the cygnets. At a glance you would not realise that Penny cant fly, nature has again provided an excellent deception technique. Penny retains the outer wing feathers giving the illusion that she has all her wing feathers, in reality these are only a cover while all her new feathers are sprouting from underneath! Compare the flared wings of Popeye and Penny and you will see that his are nearly touching.
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