Adventures in bird molt with Peter PyleBirds of the World Discovery Series Webinar Dec. 15, 2022

Bird plumage isn’t just beautiful to look at; it reveals a lot about a bird’s age, sex, and natural and evolutionary history. Decoding the clues among feathers in plumages can be a complex art, but Peter Pyle has spent his career trying to understand and document bird molts and plumages. In this webinar, Peter presents a crash course in molt and discuss the many things one can learn from its close examination.
Peter takes us on a trip through the various angles of bird molt, winding our way through the tangled terminology; presenting the vastly improved H-P system in lay-person terms; considering the interactions between bird molt, plumage color, age, and identification; illustrating some unique and fascinating molt patterns; imparting the importance of molting to bird conservation; and concluding with some thoughts on stable isotopes, molt in tropical birds, and avenues for future research. He provides some updated information on the 2022 revision of his “Identification Guide to North American Birds” and on the use of Macaulay images to study bird molt.
We are thrilled to have Peter work with us on Birds of the World where he’s been editing the Appearance section since 2007.
Co-host and Sr. Managing Editor Brooke Keeney will discuss how Peter’s expertise fits into Birds of the World, and how your contributions to Macaulay Library are used by Peter and other experts to analyze molt.
P.S. The second edition of the Pyle Guide is out December, 2022. Try Buteo Books or Avinet.
Identification Guide to North American Birds Part 1: Columbidae to Ploceidae, Revised [Passerines] by Pyle, Peter
Birds of the World is the world’s leading scholarly ornithology database published by Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
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[@rolfsimonsson2295]

Thank you all for this very interesting presentation on the topic of molt in birds. I am originally from Sweden and did a lot of birding around Falsterbo. Since then I’ve travelled around many different parts of the world. Currently I am living in Colombia and I see a lot of North American birds here during the northern hemisphere winters. Peter Pyle is one of my heroes in the field of molt studies together with Lars Svensson and others. So once again, Thank you!

[@PhilRushworth]

Absolutely riveting presentation. Thanks so much!

[@gillianmatthew6707]

Fantastic! Informative and logically explained. Thank you so much.

[@sarahycontrerasmartinez689]

Saludos Peter, excelente presentación e información