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Titre :
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Individual Black Terns Chlidonias niger and Common Terns Sterna hirundo can vary the degree of primary-moult completion from year to year (2025)
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Auteurs :
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Jan van der Winden, Auteur
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Type de document :
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Article
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Dans :
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Ringing & Migration (40(1) June, 2025)
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Article en page(s) :
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81-86
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Mots-clés:
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arrested moult
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flexibility
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suspended moult
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Résumé :
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Black and Common Terns can both suspend and arrest their primary moult, allowing them to adjust their moult to variation in environmental conditions. Both species arrest a second primary-moult series in Africa before migrating to Europe. The primary-feather number at which this moult is arrested, forming a boundary still visible later in the year in Europe, was used to study individual moult flexibility from year to year. Based on 120 retrapped Black and 17 Common Terns I show that, between years, individual terns can replace more or fewer primaries in Africa before arresting their moult. The variation is mostly restricted to one or two feathers more or fewer and the numbers do not change as they grow older. I propose that it is likely that primary-moult progress is also flexible in other periods of the annual cycle of terns.
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En ligne :
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https://doi.org/10.1080/03078698.2025.2583492
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