Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Plant Sciences, Zoology & Evolution => Topic started by: nudephil on 22/09/2020 18:03:22

Title: Do individual birds have identical plumage every year?
Post by: nudephil on 22/09/2020 18:03:22

Here's a question sent in by Jacquelyn:

It is now spring and our birds are donning their breeding plumage. Do individual birds have identical plumage every year or does the distribution of colours in the feathers change?

Does anyone know?

Title: Re: Do individual birds have identical plumage every year?
Post by: chiralSPO on 22/09/2020 20:34:35

Well... there is often a difference between juvenile and adult patterns (examples like emperor penguins, cardinals, and swans spring to mind)

Title: Re: Do individual birds have identical plumage every year?
Post by: Colin2B on 24/09/2020 09:20:09

Quote from: chiralSPO on 22/09/2020 20:34:35

Well... there is often a difference between juvenile and adult patterns

Some birds go through 4-5 different plumages from birth to adult and some juvenile to adult take up to 3 yrs with a change each year.
I must confess, I thought the basic pattern was fixed for an adult bird (other than breeding), but this is interesting https://academic.oup.com/beheco/article/17/5/790/207139