In recent months main I shifted much of my ringing efforts to study
moult. My aims are to study and describe moult strategies of the passerines of
my region - Middle East and E Mediterranean. Another aim is to shed some light on
some ecological questions related to moult. At first I obtained basic moult data
for all birds I ringed. Then, my ringing efforts change to more time spent in
desert region of Israel to collect data on some interesting and understudied passerine.
One of my target species is Southern Grey Shrike. The first year
birds perform an extensive partial moult, most of unmoult the outer secondaries, inner primaries and PC - see this wing:
The extensive partial post-juvenile moult is a typical strategy of
short distance migrants or resident species.