Resistance of flight feathers to mechanical fatigue covaries with moult strategy in two warbler species

Author:

Weber Thomas P1,Borgudd Johan2,Hedenström Anders3,Persson Kent2,Sandberg Göran2

Affiliation:

1. Department of Animal Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden

2. Division of Structural Mechanics, Lund Technical University, John Ericssons Väg 1, S-223 63 Lund, Sweden

3. Department of Theoretical Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, Sölvegatan 37, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden

Abstract

Flight feather moult in small passerines is realized in several ways. Some species moult once after breeding or once on their wintering grounds; others even moult twice. The adaptive significance of this diversity is still largely unknown. We compared the resistance to mechanical fatigue of flight feathers from the chiffchaffPhylloscopus collybita, a migratory species moulting once on its breeding grounds, with feathers from the willow warblerPhylloscopus trochilus, a migratory species moulting in both its breeding and wintering grounds. We found that flight feathers of willow warblers, which have a shaft with a comparatively large diameter, become fatigued much faster than feathers of chiffchaffs under an artificial cyclic bending regime. We propose that willow warblers may strengthen their flight feathers by increasing the diameter of the shaft, which may lead to a more rapid accumulation of damage in willow warblers than in chiffchaffs.

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,Agricultural and Biological Sciences (miscellaneous)

Reference17 articles.

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4. Borgudd J. 2003 Mechanical properties of bird feathers—influence of UV-radiation and mechanical fatigue. Lund Technical University Report TVSM-5121.

5. An analysis of physical, physiological and optical aspects of avian coloration with emphasis on wood-warblers;Burtt E.H;Ornithol. Monogr,1986

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