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Spontaneous, approximately semimonthly rhythmic variations of body weight in the migratory garden warbler (Sylvia borin boddaert)

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Summary

  1. 1.

    Two groups of garden warblers, a western Palaearctic long-distance migratory passerine bird species, were kept under controlled laboratory conditions and their weights were recorded almost daily for up to 18 and 30 months, respectively.

  2. 2.

    All specimens exhibited spontaneous, regular body weight fluctuations with an average periodicity of about 18 days and an amplitude of up to 32% of the corresponding initial body weight. The period length of the cycle was influenced by the seasonal level of body weight due to migratory fattening as well as by the nutritional composition of the diet.

  3. 3.

    This is the first time that such spontaneous cyclic, body weight fluctuations with almost a semimonthly period are described for a bird species.

  4. 4.

    Since no obvious external zeitgeber seems to exist for these rhythms in body weight they appear to be endogenously controlled.

  5. 5.

    It is suggested that the observed infradian cycle in body weight may be an expression of an internal metabolic regulatory process in order to set up to species-specific fixed body weight.

  6. 6.

    The adaptive value of such infradian body weight variations is discussed in relation to the bird's migratory behavior.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Physiological Ecology Section, Department of Zoology, University of Köln, Weyertal 119, D-5000, Köln, Federal Republic of Germany

    Franz Bairlein

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  1. Franz Bairlein
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Bairlein, F. Spontaneous, approximately semimonthly rhythmic variations of body weight in the migratory garden warbler (Sylvia borin boddaert). J Comp Physiol B 156, 859–865 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00694262

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00694262

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