Allometry of the duration of flight feather molt in birds.

ABSTRACT: We used allometric scaling to explain why the regular replacement of the primary flight feathers requires disproportionately more time for large birds. Primary growth rate scales to mass (M) as M(0.171), whereas the summed length of the primaries scales almost twice as fast (M(0.316)). The ratio of length (mm) to rate (mm/day), which would be the time needed to replace all the primaries one by one, increases as the 0.14 power of mass (M(0.316)/M(0.171) = M(0.145)), illustrating why the time required to replace the primaries is so important to life history evolution in large birds. Smaller birds generally replace all their flight feathers annually, but larger birds that fly while renewing their primaries often extend the primary molt over two or more years. Most flying birds exhibit one of

SUBMITTER: Rohwer S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2690433 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature