Web databases of feather photographs are useful tools for avian morphometry studies.

ABSTRACT: Wing area, wing loading, and aspect ratio are key variables for studies of avian comparative ecology, despite the complexity of measuring wing characteristics in living and museum specimens. The systematic databases of feather photographs available on the Internet may offer an alternative way of obtaining such morphometric data. Here, we evaluate whether measurements of scanned feathers from web photograph databases may offer reliable estimates of avian morphometry.Published data on wing area were obtained for 317 bird species and feather measurements from web photograph databases for 225 of them. A variable termed "lift generation area," a proxy for wing area, was calculated for each species on the basis of the mean length of the five distal secondary feathers and wingspan data from liter

SUBMITTER: Malo JE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8216968 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature