The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation
The Skylark Alauda arvensis is a European passerine species lacking plumage dimorphism and having a complete post-nuptial moult in adults, and a complete post-juvenile moult in young birds. Tongue spots were thought to allow age discrimination after moult. Based on data from a study population in th...
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2012
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ftunigroningenpu:oai:pure.rug.nl:publications/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 2024-06-23T07:45:04+00:00 The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation Hegemann, Arne Voesten, Rob van Eerde, Kees van der Velde, Marco Tieleman, Irene 2012-06-12 https://hdl.handle.net/11370/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 eng eng https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess Hegemann , A , Voesten , R , van Eerde , K , van der Velde , M & Tieleman , I 2012 , ' The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis : A critical evaluation ' , Ringing & Migration , vol. 27 , pp. 7-12 . article 2012 ftunigroningenpu 2024-06-10T16:12:45Z The Skylark Alauda arvensis is a European passerine species lacking plumage dimorphism and having a complete post-nuptial moult in adults, and a complete post-juvenile moult in young birds. Tongue spots were thought to allow age discrimination after moult. Based on data from a study population in the Netherlands, where the age of many birds was known, we show that tongue spots are not useful for ageing Skylarks. Some nestlings lack tongue spots and half of all birds had tongue spots when three years or older. Regarding sex discrimination, males and females can usually be distinguished from a bimodal wing length distribution, but the threshold and amount of overlap in wing length between sexes vary greatly between studies. Here, we show that 98% of all individuals from our Dutch breeding population could be sexed correctly by wing length. However, during migration and winter, when populations from other regions co-occur in the same area, molecular analyses revealed that the overlap in wing length between sexes increased. Therefore, ringers need to be cautious when assigning sex, and small males especially are often misclassified. For example, based on criteria used in France, 14% of Dutch male Skylarks, which are partial migrants, would be misclassified as females. Article in Journal/Newspaper Alauda arvensis University of Groningen research database |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Groningen research database |
op_collection_id |
ftunigroningenpu |
language |
English |
description |
The Skylark Alauda arvensis is a European passerine species lacking plumage dimorphism and having a complete post-nuptial moult in adults, and a complete post-juvenile moult in young birds. Tongue spots were thought to allow age discrimination after moult. Based on data from a study population in the Netherlands, where the age of many birds was known, we show that tongue spots are not useful for ageing Skylarks. Some nestlings lack tongue spots and half of all birds had tongue spots when three years or older. Regarding sex discrimination, males and females can usually be distinguished from a bimodal wing length distribution, but the threshold and amount of overlap in wing length between sexes vary greatly between studies. Here, we show that 98% of all individuals from our Dutch breeding population could be sexed correctly by wing length. However, during migration and winter, when populations from other regions co-occur in the same area, molecular analyses revealed that the overlap in wing length between sexes increased. Therefore, ringers need to be cautious when assigning sex, and small males especially are often misclassified. For example, based on criteria used in France, 14% of Dutch male Skylarks, which are partial migrants, would be misclassified as females. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Hegemann, Arne Voesten, Rob van Eerde, Kees van der Velde, Marco Tieleman, Irene |
spellingShingle |
Hegemann, Arne Voesten, Rob van Eerde, Kees van der Velde, Marco Tieleman, Irene The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
author_facet |
Hegemann, Arne Voesten, Rob van Eerde, Kees van der Velde, Marco Tieleman, Irene |
author_sort |
Hegemann, Arne |
title |
The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
title_short |
The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
title_full |
The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
title_fullStr |
The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
title_full_unstemmed |
The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis :A critical evaluation |
title_sort |
use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks alauda arvensis :a critical evaluation |
publishDate |
2012 |
url |
https://hdl.handle.net/11370/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 |
genre |
Alauda arvensis |
genre_facet |
Alauda arvensis |
op_source |
Hegemann , A , Voesten , R , van Eerde , K , van der Velde , M & Tieleman , I 2012 , ' The use of tongue spots for ageing and wing length for sexing skylarks Alauda arvensis : A critical evaluation ' , Ringing & Migration , vol. 27 , pp. 7-12 . |
op_relation |
https://research.rug.nl/en/publications/947c8ac0-b9b6-4229-b54f-b1d202722a41 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/restrictedAccess |
_version_ |
1802650990280704000 |