Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus
Flight feather moult is an energetically expensive stage of the annual cycle of birds. Its timing is adjusted to other important time- and energy-demanding activities, including migration. In the vast majority of migratory birds, primary moult occurs before or after migration or moulting is suspende...
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2024
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 https://doaj.org/article/6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc |
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc 2024-09-30T14:46:17+00:00 Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus W. Meissner M. Jewuła 2024-07-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 https://doaj.org/article/6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc EN eng Taylor & Francis Group https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 https://doaj.org/toc/2475-0263 doi:10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 2475-0263 https://doaj.org/article/6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc The European Zoological Journal, Vol 91, Iss 2, Pp 1068-1077 (2024) Gulls Underhill–Zucchini model flight feathers migration Zoology QL1-991 article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 2024-09-17T16:00:48Z Flight feather moult is an energetically expensive stage of the annual cycle of birds. Its timing is adjusted to other important time- and energy-demanding activities, including migration. In the vast majority of migratory birds, primary moult occurs before or after migration or moulting is suspended during migration. The Black-headed Gull is an exception: it starts moulting flight feathers at the onset of the autumn migration. The course of primary moult in this species is still poorly understood due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient data from the entire period of flight feather replacement. In this paper, we employed digital photos taken in the field to estimate the start, variation in the start date and duration of primary moult in adult and immature Black-headed Gulls, by using the Underhill–Zucchini likelihood moult model. On average, immatures started their moult on 7 June, 25 days earlier than adults, but their moult lasted 5 days longer. Consequently, there was a 20-day difference in the end of moult – that is, on average it occurred on 16 September and 6 October in immature and adult gulls, respectively. Adults showed greater variability in the mean primary moult start date than immatures, as the beginning of flight feather replacement may depend on breeding success (earlier after breeding failure) and on breeding phenology. The overlap of primary moult and migration produces a trade-off in resource allocation between those two processes, which leads to a low number of simultaneously growing primaries and a decrease in the growth rate of the two external, heaviest flight feathers. Existing reports of a later completion of primary moult in the first half of November in this species are based on the faulty assumption that the outermost primary is always the longest, which is not the case in 34% of individuals. Article in Journal/Newspaper Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles The European Zoological Journal 91 2 1068 1077 |
institution |
Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Gulls Underhill–Zucchini model flight feathers migration Zoology QL1-991 |
spellingShingle |
Gulls Underhill–Zucchini model flight feathers migration Zoology QL1-991 W. Meissner M. Jewuła Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
topic_facet |
Gulls Underhill–Zucchini model flight feathers migration Zoology QL1-991 |
description |
Flight feather moult is an energetically expensive stage of the annual cycle of birds. Its timing is adjusted to other important time- and energy-demanding activities, including migration. In the vast majority of migratory birds, primary moult occurs before or after migration or moulting is suspended during migration. The Black-headed Gull is an exception: it starts moulting flight feathers at the onset of the autumn migration. The course of primary moult in this species is still poorly understood due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient data from the entire period of flight feather replacement. In this paper, we employed digital photos taken in the field to estimate the start, variation in the start date and duration of primary moult in adult and immature Black-headed Gulls, by using the Underhill–Zucchini likelihood moult model. On average, immatures started their moult on 7 June, 25 days earlier than adults, but their moult lasted 5 days longer. Consequently, there was a 20-day difference in the end of moult – that is, on average it occurred on 16 September and 6 October in immature and adult gulls, respectively. Adults showed greater variability in the mean primary moult start date than immatures, as the beginning of flight feather replacement may depend on breeding success (earlier after breeding failure) and on breeding phenology. The overlap of primary moult and migration produces a trade-off in resource allocation between those two processes, which leads to a low number of simultaneously growing primaries and a decrease in the growth rate of the two external, heaviest flight feathers. Existing reports of a later completion of primary moult in the first half of November in this species are based on the faulty assumption that the outermost primary is always the longest, which is not the case in 34% of individuals. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
W. Meissner M. Jewuła |
author_facet |
W. Meissner M. Jewuła |
author_sort |
W. Meissner |
title |
Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
title_short |
Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
title_full |
Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
title_fullStr |
Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
title_full_unstemmed |
Age differences in primary moult of the Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
title_sort |
age differences in primary moult of the black-headed gull chroicocephalus ridibundus |
publisher |
Taylor & Francis Group |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 https://doaj.org/article/6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc |
genre |
Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
genre_facet |
Black-headed Gull Chroicocephalus ridibundus |
op_source |
The European Zoological Journal, Vol 91, Iss 2, Pp 1068-1077 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 https://doaj.org/toc/2475-0263 doi:10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 2475-0263 https://doaj.org/article/6bf98260e1264001a8bde345bec4fccc |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1080/24750263.2024.2398174 |
container_title |
The European Zoological Journal |
container_volume |
91 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
1068 |
op_container_end_page |
1077 |
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1811646384644816896 |