Summary: Biological Journal of the Linnean Society (1999), 67: 263­276. With 3 figures
Article ID: bijl.1998.0302, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on
A phylogenetic analysis of the evolution of moult
strategies in Western Palearctic warblers (Aves:
Sylviidae)
ERIK SVENSSON
Biology Department, Earth and Marine Sciences Building, University of California, Santa Cruz,
CA 95064, U.S.A.
ANDERS HEDENSTRO¨ M
Department of Animal Ecology, Ecology Building, Lund University, S-223 62 Lund, Sweden
Received 13 July 1998; accepted for publication 26 October 1998
Adult birds replace their flight feathers (moult) at least once per year, either in summer after
termination of breeding or (in the case of some long-distance migratory species) in the winter
quarters. We reconstructed the evolutionary pathways leading to summer and winter moult
using recently published molecular phylogenetic information on the relationships of the
Western Palearctic warblers (Aves: Sylviidae). Our phylogenetic analysis indicates that
summer moult is the ancestral pattern and that winter moult has evolved 7­10 times in this
clade. As taxa increased their migratory distance and colonized northern breeding areas,
summer moult disappeared and winter moult evolved. Our data also allows us to trace the
historical origins of unusual moult patterns such as the split-moult and biannual moult

Source: Agrell, Jep - Department of Ecology, Lunds Universitet

Collections: Environmental Sciences and Ecology