Molt patterns, age, and sex criteria for selected highland Costa Rican resident landbirds

Abstract

Demographic studies within temperate latitudes often use molt and plumage-based criteria to differentiate age and sex classes (Bayne & Hobson 2002, Brown et al. 2002, Jones et al. 2004). Despite their critical nature (Pyle et al. 2004, DuVal 2005, Doucet et al. 2007), molt and plumage data derived from resident tropical species remain scarce (Dickey & van Rossem 1938, Diamond 1974, Foster 1975, Prys-Jones 1982, Pyle et al. 2004, Ryder & Wolfe 2009, Wolfe et al. in press). To advance our understanding of resident tropical avifauna molt, we studied molt patterns and plumage-based age characteristics for ten resident highland species commonly found in the northern cordilleras of Costa Rica. The following accounts summarize our findings on molt, aging, and sexing criteria. They are based on skin specimens obtained from museum collections and banding data from a study of bird ecology in coffee plantations and forest habitats in the Cordillera de Tilarán, Costa Rica (winter and spring of 2006/07 and 2007/08).

Citation

Wolfe, Jared D. ; Chandler, Richard B.; King, David I. 2009. Molt patterns, age, and sex criteria for selected highland Costa Rican resident landbirds. Ornitologia Neotropical 20: 451–459