Differences in wing shape between sedentary and migratory Reed Buntings Emberiza schoeniclus

In several species wing shape varies with migratory habit, population, age and/or sex. Several wing-shape indices are used in the literature, but unti l now! no studies have applied multivariate statistical techniques to avoid the problem of allometry at an intraspecific level between migratory and s edentary individuals. In this study we apply a new technique to determine w ing-shape differences between two subspecies of Reed Bunting, one migratory and the other sedentary, inhabiting the same area in autumn. Our results s howed that the migratory subspecies has larger, more convex wings than the sedentary one. Wing morphology was accurately correlated with migratory hab it when corrected for size differences.