Advanced post-juvenile moult in a Barn Swallow Hirundo rustica found in January 2023 in northern Scotland

Abstract

ABSTRACT On 4 January 2023 DAP found a dead Swallow on a farm near Auldearn, Nairnshire (57°35’N 3°52’W). The bird appeared to have been dead for three to four weeks but was in a reasonably good state of preservation, probably as a result of the prolonged period of snow and very low temperatures which had prevailed in the area during the second and third weeks of December 2022. The bird, a juvenile, appeared to have reached a stage of moult of its flight feathers which might usually have only been expected in its winter quarters.