Re-appraisal of moult of Red-necked Stints in Southern Australia
DC Paton and BJ Wykes
Emu 78(2) 54 - 60
Abstract The Red-necked Stint Calidris ruficollis breeds in the northern hemisphere and migrates to southern
latitudes for its non-breeding period where adults undergo a complete moult of the flight feathers. Juveniles follow the adults to the wintering grounds but remain for the breeding season, the southern
winter, and do not moult all their flight feathers until the following year. Returning adults and second-year birds begin to moult their primaries between late August and early December and finish between
late December and late March. The mean duration of moult of their primaries is calculated as 130 days,
fifteen days longer than that previously reported. Previous authors may not have distinguished non-moulting first-year birds and the inaccuracies in their method of calculation probably account for the
difference. Distributions of the moult scores of the primaries of the adults are unimodal and we dispel
Evans's (1975) suggestion of subgroups. Pooling of data from separate samples, asymmetry between the
wings during early stages of moult, decrease in the rate d moult in middle to late stages and possible
bias in sampling all may have contributed to the artificial formation of subgroups.
Full text doi:10.1071/MU9780054
© CSIRO 1978





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