Post-juvenile moult in Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis

Abstract

The moult pattern of the Graceful Prinia Prinia gracilis, a resident cisticolid warbler of the Middle East region of the Western Palaearctic, is poorly known. Characterising moult strategies in the avian life cycle is important for understanding population processes and dynamics and, therefore, we have analysed the timing, sequence, extent and duration of post-juvenile moult of Graceful Prinia in Israel. The extent of post-juvenile moult was either complete or partial (but extensive), depending on the dates of hatching and the start of moult. Compared to most European passerines, the long breeding period (February–November) in this region allows a relatively long moult period (79.3 ± 4.7 days) for this resident species, which facilitates considerable variability in the extent of post-juvenile moult.