Mayim's Recovery - Tail Question

[Crow]

Several weeks ago, a terribly bedraggled young pigeon came to my window completely covered in some kind of thick, gummy oil. I held out a bowl of shelled sunflower seeds, and he ate hungrily. He stepped inside a bit, and I grabbed him.

I shampooed Mayim (it means 'water') with unscented baby shampoo, but the gummy oil wouldn't budge. So I soaked him with baby oil, worked it through, saw the thick oil break up in brownish clots and release torrents of sludgy dark grit, rinsed that out, soaked him with the rest of the bottle, and shampooed again. I let him have a little break to eat after this big washing session, and he ate so furiously I had to take the bowl away from him. I was afraid he'd hurt his crop! I let him rest, and fed him more a bit later.

Over the next week, I shampooed him several more times. It took so much shampooing to get the thick oil and ground-in dirt out of his feathers! The poor little guy must have been cold, because his feathers had no loft at all - they were just a sticky, matted mess. It didn't smell like motor oil, and it didn't smell like cooking oil. It was more like Vaseline with a gummy consistency. I wonder what that stuff was.

So now his feathers are clean, full, fluffy, and silky. He looks GREAT, and he's posing, cooing and booming quite a lot. He's definitely a male. I have him in a cage by the window, and female pigeons come to visit and eat with him.

He eagles his wings at me in recognition, and responds to "who's a good bird?" and "Mayim's a good boy" by flicking his wings (looks juvenile/submissive) and arching his neck and eagling. Wow.

I think his natural oils are back now, and he's confident and extremely eager to return to pigeon society - but here's the problem. His tail is missing a big chunk of feathers. I let him fly around the apartment, and I could see that his tail looks like this //--\\\\ which worries me.

The edges of his wings are also very worn from (presumably) dragging in the grit when he was weighed down by oil. The tail, I don't know - maybe a dog?

Should I let him go, or wait until some of those missing feathers grow back?

How long do pigeons' tailfeathers take to replace themselves?

I'm in downtown Seattle.