Birds New Zealand online workshop inspires renewed interest in moult studies
An online workshop about recording moult in the plumage of birds was held by Birds New Zealand on 5 February 2025.
Participants joined in from throughout New Zealand with even a few joining in from overseas. In welcoming participants to this first online Birds New Zealand workshop, Dr Natalie Forsdick, President of the Society, summarised the history of the Moult Scheme. The Moult Scheme was launched by the Society in 1981 and has the aim of collecting information on the moult patterns of all New Zealand bird species, and pointed out that numerous questions concerning moult continue to puzzle ornithologists.
Natalie welcomed Dr Santiago Guallar, Collaborator at the Museum of Natural Sciences of Barcelona in Spain and the Catalan Ornithological Institute, and a recognised international specialist on moult. He presented a broad introduction on the subject and made substantial contributions on moult dynamics with case studies throughout the day.
In his introduction, Dr Guallar reviewed the reasons, patterns, types, benefits and costs of moult in terms of rate of feather growth, aerodynamics and flight risks for bird survival across various species. Dr Paul Fisher, David Melville, Rob Schuckard and Mike Bell presented moult case studies in Silvereye, South Island Fernbird, South Island Pied Oystercatcher and Swamp Harrier, describing much of what is known, and importantly, raising challenging questions for further research.
Mike Bell described the use of photography to examine moult in Fluttering Shearwaters using photographs provided by eBird observers, a promising tool for studying moult in seabirds that spend most of their lives at sea. On behalf of Graeme Taylor, David Melville described moult studies and techniques in burrowing seabirds, notably the Taiko, Grey-faced Petrel and Flesh-footed Shearwater. Speaking from California, Dr Jesse Conklin’s presentation on individual moult in Bar-tailed Godwits from digital photography shows this method to be helpful yet time-consuming.
Birds New Zealand’s Moult Recording Scheme and its future management was discussed by Bruce McKinlay, while Michelle Bradshaw described the ability to record moult data in the NZ National Bird Banding Scheme FALCON system. Options for recording moult and collating moult records in the future were discussed by Dr Guallar, David Melville and Dr Fisher. A lively Q&A session demonstrated the high level of engagement from participants, covering numerous topics and identifying areas where additional support and future research are desirable. Nearly 100 participants took part in the online workshop. Proceedings were recorded and will be made available as an educational resource on the Birds New Zealand website. Funding for the workshop was provided by the Birds New Zealand Research Fund and online support was kindly provided by Nelson City Council.
PDFs of the workshop talks are available at Birds New Zealand Online Moult Workshop.
Ian Armitage, Vice President, Birds New Zealand.