Grooming time parallels molt intensity in wild-caught feral Rock Pigeons

Feathers are critical for locomotion, communication, thermoregulation, waterproofing, and protection from UV radiation. To maintain these functions, birds care for their feathers by grooming, which consists of preening with the bill and scratching with the feet. Grooming cleans and arranges feathers, distributes preen oil and powder down, and removes ectoparasites. Birds devote considerable time and energy to grooming, to the exclusion of other activities, such as foraging. All else being equal, birds should aim to minimize their grooming time. Seasonal changes in grooming have been documented, with some species of birds grooming more in summer than winter. The higher rate of summer grooming may be caused by molt; however, the relationship between the dynamics of grooming and molt have been quantified only in captive birds subject to other manipulation, such as induced molt in poultry, or access to mates in Zebra Finches. We conducted an eight-month study of wild-caught feral Rock Pigeo..., , # Data from: Grooming time parallels molt intensity in wild-caught feral Rock Pigeons

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.73n5tb38g](10.5061/dryad.73n5tb38g)

## Description of the data and file structure

This dataset contains five .csv files with data collected for study of the relationship between grooming behavior and molt in a captive population (n=25) of wild-caught feral rock pigeons (Columba livia).

\"Behavior_ScanSamples\" is a dataset with 46522 behavioral observations (using instantaneous scan sampling) taken from April to November, 2023.

\"Primary Molt\": is a data file that provides the Julian calendar date that primary feathers molted (defined as a missing feather or newly emerging feather), as noted during six visual exams during the course of the study.

\"Body Molt\": is a dataset that details which of eight body regions were molting during six visual exams.

\"Summary_Data LMM\" provides a summary of the molting and grooming data used to run Linear Mixed Effect models. Data are s...,