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Résumé :
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We compared age composition, and three morphological variables (feather length, body mass, fat class) between birds caught at a ringing station during irruption years with birds caught during years with relatively few migrants for the Coal Tit, Blue Tit, Great Tit and Eurasian Siskin. For the latter two species also sex ratio was analysed.In the Great and Blue Tit, the proportion of first year birds was slightly increased during irruption years compared to normal years, whereas in the Siskin the proportion of adults was higher. The proportion of females was slightly higher ill irruption years in the Great Tit. However, these relationships disappeared when relating the yearly proportions of juveniles and females to the number of migrants. All tit species were fatter and larger in irruption years compared to normal years, however these differences were small. Only for the Great Tit, we found a significant positive relation between size and fat reserves oil one hand and numbers of migrants oil the other hand.The results indicate that the mechanism and/or underlying causes of mass migration might be similar for the three tit species analysed, and they might differ between the tit species and the Siskin. The positive correlation between number of migrants and body condition in tits suggests that good feeding conditions preceded the mass migration, and, therefore, large Population size rather than acute food shortage may be the more plausible factor triggering evasions in the tit species we studied.
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