Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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den Blanken G., Boere G.C. & Nieboer E. (1981) Primary moult of the Redshank Tringa totanus in the Dutch Waddenzee studied by collecting shed feathers; a test. ARDEA 69 (1): 115-124
This paper presents an evaluation of shed feather collecting as a method for moult study in comparison with bird trapping and discusses its limitations and conditions to be met, for successful results. The Redshank Tringa totanus was chosen as a study species and primaries shed were collected from 1 July until 24 September 1975 on the island of Vlieland (Dutch Waddenzee). The ordinal number of most primaries collected could not be identified and this prohibited a detalled study of the moult such as is possible by bird trapping. However the results obtained agreed with those from bird trapping. Therefore it is concluded that a study of moult on the basis of collecting shed primaries can provide much valuable information in a relatively short time if the ordinal number of the feather can be ascertained. The shed feathers give little information about the moulting bird itself; the method of primary collection cannot replace bird trapping but it can provide supplementary information in a relatively quick, cheap and - for the birds - peaceful way.


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