Meeting Abstract
In seasonal environments, natural local cues, such as changes in rainfall and temperature, allow birds to schedule life history stages. In this study using the framework of allostasis, we explored the costs of overlapping molt and breeding in two environments with different degrees of seasonality. In our seasonal environment birds avoid the overlap of breeding and molt, and molt was limited to a defined season, following typical songbird pattern, with both wings symmetrically molted. Under year-round benign conditions and an aseasonal environment, we found overlap of breeding and molt, although the molt was less intense in individuals overlapping than in individuals exclusively molting We also found non-typical molt with asymmetry between wings. In some cases birds retained feathers up to three seasons without replacement. Using the allostatic framework we argue that body condition can function as proxy for the cumulative resources available to an individual, and can better explain why some individuals overlap molt and breeding, and others do not under similar conditions. Thus, we observed that body condition was significantly better in birds that overlapped molt and breeding than in birds that did not.
