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## Abstract Various features of plumage and molt were studied in Golden Plovers, Whimbrels, Bristle-thighed Curlews, Wandering Tattlers, and Ruddy Turnstones. Specimens collected during July 1973 at Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, represent birds that had not migrated to the northern breeding grounds. Based upon several criteria (bursa of Fabricius, wear of remiges and rectrices, and the condition of body feathers) most specimens appeared to be first-year birds. The relative development of alternate plumage showed considerable individual variation, which presumably reflects physiological variability in the factors controlling prealternate molt in the late winter and spring. Many birds remain in nonbreeding plumage (exhibiting only a few alternate feathers), and essentially pass from one basic plumage to another while on the winter range. Plovers replace primaries, secondaries, and some tertials during the winter, and were undergoing a complete prebasic molt in July. Such a pattern varies considerably from molt chronology in postnuptial adults. Whimbrels and Bristle-thighed Curlews finish wing molt in the late spring to midsummer, and birds collected in July had not yet begun preb

Who reads Plumage and Molt in Shorebirds Summering at Enewetak Atoll?

Author

Oscar W. Johnson

Publisher

University of California Press; Oxford University Press; American Ornithologists' Union; Oxford University Press (OUP); JSTOR (ISSN 0004-8038)

Published

1977

Language

EN

Field

Environmental Science (Physical Sciences)