Understanding Moult Patterns In Albatrosses And Petrels Breeding On Marion And Gough Islands
Moult is an energetically demanding process for birds, and the replacement of flight feathers impacts flight performance. As a result, few birds overlap moult with other key activities such as breeding or migrating. Feather growth rates show little change in relation to body size, so large birds with long flight feathers take a long time to grow individual feathers, making their moult even more challenging. Unless these birds can afford to become flightless for several weeks while they replace all their flight feathers simultaneously, many large birds lack sufficient time to breed and replace all their wing feathers each year. As a result, they have evolved complex moult strategies that replace a subset of feathers each year. Albatrosses and giant petrels are prime examples of birds facing this challenge. This study focusses on Wandering Albatrosses (Diomedea exulans) and Northern Giant Petrels (Macronectes halli) breeding at Marion Island and Southern Giant Petrels (M. giganteus) at Gough Island. I explore primary and secondary moult patterns in Wandering Albatrosses and secondary and greater secondary coverts in giant petrels in relation to breeding activity. I used digital photography to record the wear patterns in the wings of Wandering Albatrosses and giant petrels. Using photographs of upperwings of marked individuals over time allowed the opportunity to track changes in the wear pattern among specific feathers, although scoring feather wear from images works better for darker feathers. The rate of wear among secondaries and their coverts differed across the wing, with the inner feathers wearing faster than the central feathers. Photographing the extended wings of albatrosses and petrels incubating eggs had no impact on hatching success. Using this method I was able to test the often held assumption that wing feather moult is largely symmetrical. In Wandering Albatrosses, moult symmetry was greatest in outer flight feathers, especially primaries. However, the pattern of increasing asymmetry towards the body was not consistent; inner primaries showed less symmetry than outer secondaries and inner secondaries were moulted with greater symmetry than central secondaries. Giant petrels preferentially replaced the inner and outer secondaries and the inner and outer greater secondary coverts, and feather symmetry was greatest in these feathers. All three species indicated some asymmetry in all feathers that had an incomplete annual 2 moult. Depending on the question being asked, I recommend scoring both wings when investigating moult patterns. Wandering Albatrosses typically take a sabbatical year following a successful breeding attempt, and thus failed breeders usually have less time to moult between successive breeding attempts. Following a successful breeding attempt, Wandering Albatrosses from Marion Island replaced a similar number of primary feathers on average (males 7.9 and females 7.3) as birds from the Crozet Islands (males 8.8 and females 8.1) and South Georgia (males 8.6 and females 7.1). Wandering Albatrosses that do not skip a year following a failed breeding attempt, not only replaced fewer feathers on average, but showed a difference in number of feathers replaced between sexes at Marion Island (males 7.4, females 6.1), as previously reported at the Crozet Islands (males 8.3, females 6.5) and South Georgia (males 7.2, females 5.2). These results suggest that females are under greatest pressure when a breeding attempt fails. Because females from South Georgia replace fewer feathers, especially following a failed breeding attempt, they might be under more stress than females from populations breeding at islands in the Indian Ocean (Marion and Crozet). This parallels the contrasting population trends in these regions, with numbers increasing over the last few decades in the Indian Ocean (Marion and Crozet Islands) but decreasing steadily at South Georgia. General Linear Models (GLMs) showed that sex and time availa