Is mass loss in Brünnich's guillemots Uria lomvia an adaptation for improved flight performance or improved dive performance?

• Published in: Journal of Avian Biology
• Main Authors: Elliott, Kyle H., Jacobs, Shoshanah R., Ringrose, Julian, Gaston, Anthony J., Davoren, Gail K.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2008
• Subjects: Animal Science and Zoology; Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics; Nunavut; Coats Island; Uria lomvia; uria
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-048x.2008.04316.x; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-048X.2008.04316.x; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-048X.2008.04316.x

Breeding Brünnich's guillemots Uria lomvia show stepwise mass loss at the time of hatch. This mass loss has usually been explained as an adaptation to reduce the cost of flight during the chick‐rearing period because flight time increases during that period. It is possible, however, that mass l...