Michael Price wrote:

> Exactly! Except for the other relatively specialised plumage, Juvenal, many
> birds *are* in a basic plumage except when they develop the other
> specialised plumage, Alternate, for courtship display.

And why is it that the "non-breeding" plumage is defined as "basic",
rather than the "breeding" plumage?

If birds spent 50% of their time in each plumage, this would be a good
question. But many species wear their breeding finery for a relatively
short period of time, so the "basic-alternate" plumage definition makes
a lot of sense. To me, at least...

And I'm certain that the developers of this jargon (and, it is, in all
the best senses of the word, jargon) knew that it is much easier to
define new jargon than it is to attempt to redefine existing jargon.

A technical question, though - does this terminology eclipse the use of
"eclipse", as in "eclipse plumage"? :)

--
- Don Baccus, Portland OR <donb at rational.com>
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