Primary moult of the Brambling Fringilla montifringilla in northern Sweden

Abstract

The postnuptial wing moult of the Brambling was studied in a subalpine birch forest near Ammarnäs (65°58'N, 16°07'E) in Swedish Lapland. 580 moult cards were collected during an annual ringing scheme in the years 1984—1989. Regression analysis of moult data, with date as the independent value, showed an average moult duration for males and females of 47 days. Raggedness values support the moult speed estimated from the regression analysis. The moult speed shown here for the Brambling is much faster than for the Chaffinch and might be due to some constraint for moulting during early autumn.