Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Dean W.R.J. (1977) Moult of Little Stints in South Africa. ARDEA 65 (1-2): 73-79
Quantitative data on the moult of Little Stints at Barberspan, South Africa, are presented. Little Stints arrive during late August and September and begin to moult during September to December. Primary moult scores have a wide range in December and January and suggest that the wintering Little Stints come from different breeding areas. Mean daily increase in primary score is 0.87 ¦ 0.14. The estimated duration of primary moult is 100-115 days. The moult of the primaries, secondaries, tail- and body are synchronised and the entire moult appears to have a sigmoid curve pattern. Retrap data collected at Barberspan suggest that Little Stints seldom spend the whole austral summer, or complete primary moult, at a single locality.


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