TY  - JOUR
A1  - Tegetmeyer, Cosima
A1  - Thoma, Marco
A1  - Arbeiter, Susanne
T1  - Moult and mobility of the Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola on the West African non-breeding grounds
JF  - Journal of ornithology
N2  - The globally threatened Aquatic Warbler Acrocephalus paludicola is a Palearctic-African long-distance migrant that undergoes a complete moult while wintering in Africa. Little is known about the timing of moult and the birds' mobility during moulting periods. We conducted the first study on the moult of Aquatic Warblers, in the Djoudj area of Senegal, West Africa. Wing moult scores from 36 to 90 and raggedness scores from 0 to 25 were recorded in December and January. No moulting Aquatic Warblers were caught after January. Body-feather moult was observed during and shortly after wing moult until January. We conclude that Aquatic Warblers follow the typical sequence of passerine moult, with remige moult starting in October or November. To find out how moult affects their mobility, we measured the net distance that Aquatic Warblers equipped with radio transmitters travelled in 15-min intervals. In our small sample of eight birds, the mean path length was 34 m, and there was no obvious difference between the path lengths in moulting and non-moulting individuals. We conclude that, possibly, moult does not affect the mobility and flight ability of Aquatic Warblers in general. Further research is needed to locate other wintering grounds, e.g. in the Inner Niger Delta, and reproduce our study in other populations.
KW  - Aquatic Warbler
KW  - Remige moult
KW  - Body feather moult
KW  - Long-distance migrant
KW  - Sahel
KW  - Non-breeding area
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-012-0833-3
SN  - 0021-8375
VL  - 153
IS  - 4
SP  - 1045
EP  - 1051
PB  - Springer
CY  - New York
ER  -