#ALULA FEATHER FULL#

Although they are probably only about ten weeks old, the wear on the tips of p8 and p9 (counting descendantly) is noticeable, with p8 having broken, so the need for a full moult is perhaps obvious. The tertials are the most exposed feathers and are moulted early, along with some of the innermost primaries. Using the standard scoring system of 0=old feather to 5=fully-grown new feather, I would score the remiges as 5 3 5 | 0 0 0 0 1 4 | 5 5 5 5 5 4 2 0 0 0. This photo shows two pictures of the same bird caught in my garden on 11 August: They're almost like the brightly-coloured pictures (red, yellow, green, blue) that Jenni & Winkler use to illustrate the schematics of moult progress.

The juvenile and 'adult' feathers are so different in colour that it must be about the easiest species in which to detect 'new' and 'old' feathers.

Starlings Sturnus vulgaris are another of the species where juveniles have a complete moult, although they can still be aged after the moult by subtle differences in plumage such as the shape of uppertail coverts and the length of the throat feathers. We can have interesting, but largely nugatory, discussions about when a growth-bar becomes a fault-bar, but in this case I don't think there is much doubt: One of these birds had a very obvious fault-bar across the tail. I think this can be a particularly helpful extra ageing characteristic in this species where both first-years and adults have a full moult. The brownish colours of the juveniles and the reddish hue of the adult are quite easy to distinguish once you get your eye in (!). The photo below shows the eyes of these three birds, with an adult (age 4) that I photographed in February for comparison. Having a net up in my garden last week allowed me to catch three Collared Doves Streptopelia decaocto, all first-year birds (Euring age code = 3).

Alula feather