Saturday, July 10, 2010

Marsh Harrier moult

this female is quite unusual in her moult timing as they tend to undertake some moult of inner primaries, body feathers and sometimes retrices while incubating but have regrown their feather to make them efficient flyers by the time the chicks are 2-3 weeks old when the females start to assist the male in hunting for the brood -- this female has moulted all of her inner primaries and central tail feathers and looks set to carry on with her post breeding moult even though her single chick is only just flying -- I think that the fact that the pair has only reared one chick is why she is still moulting knowing that she can leave the feeding to the male --

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