Breeding seasons, molt patterns, and gender and age criteria for selected northeastern Costa Rican resident landbirds

Detailed accounts of molt and breeding cycles remain elusive for the majority of resident tropical bird species. We used data derived from a museum review and 12 years of banding data to infer breeding seasonality, molt patterns, and age and gender criteria for 27 common landbird species in northeastern Costa Rica. Prealternate molts appear to be rare, only occurring in one species (Sporophila corvina), while presupplemental molts were not detected. Most of our study species (70%) symmetrically replace flight feathers during the absence of migrant birds; molting during this period may limit resource competition during an energetically taxing phase of the avian life-cycle.
Temporal patterns of molt and breeding seasonality are largely unknown for many resident tropical species (Dickey and van Rossem 1938, Snow and Snow 1964, Snow 1976) in contrast to Nearctic-Neotropic [...]