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Wing Length and Mass Ranges of Resident Birds at Two Sites in Costa Rica

Abstract

At two sites in Costa Rica, we banded 3,200 individuals of 137 resident species: 2,647 of 103 species at Las Caletas (2002-2008) and 553 of 66 species at La Selva (2011-2012). Thirty-three species were captured at both sites. We present summary statistics for wing length and body mass for 133 species. We analyze both metrics by sex class where sample sizes permit. Data are presented by species in three ways: (1) the interquartile range (IQR: range of the middle 50% of the data), (2) the range of all data, and (3) plus-or-minus two standard deviations (SD) of the mean (intended to capture the middle 95% of wing lengths). For most species our mass ranges are more variable compared to Dunning (2008). Male wing was longer than female wing for 8 of 11 species for which we had sufficient data for comparison. Body mass differences were evenly split between the sexes for 10 species at Las Caletas whereas at La Selva males were heavier than females for both species for which we had sufficient data. Slightly over half (56.8%) of the birds captured at Las Caletas were aged as adult, whereas 4.4% were juvenile, and 43.2% were of unknown age; at La Selva, it was 86.3%, 10.6% and 3.1%, respectively. While published data for tropical resident species have been accumulating, morphometrics should be recorded at more localities because of the high level of both intra-and inter-specific variation within landscapes that result in isolation (e.g. mountain ranges, islands).

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