Molting in Neotropical Birds

• Summarizes and reviews the current understanding of bird molt sequences, including terminological advances using an age code system that can be applied to birds worldwide
  
• Teaches users how to discover and identify molt sequences in birds for which this is not yet known; this can be applied anywhere
  
• Provides detailed molt sequences, skull ossification patterns, breeding information relevant to aging/sexing (such as sex-specific incubation details) for 37 Neotropical families of non-passerines and passerines
  
• Includes analyses for 187 example lowland Amazonian species on the sequence of molts, timing of breeding, and aging and sexing characteristics applicable across a variety of ornithological pursuits, especially for bird banding and for developing demographic analyses
  
• Synthesizes 30 years of data into a single reference which can be used throughout the tropics
  

Molting is a growth related process in birds in which certain feathers are shed and replaced during the life cycle. The timing, duration, seasonality, extent and pattern of molting follows certain strategies. This book reviews and describes these strategies for nearly 200 species of birds from a 30-year study of birds of the Central Amazon. Each account is to be illustrated with several color photos focusing on wing and tail feather molting.