Birds molt during the warm seasons before the breeding season begins. It usually cost 25% to 40% of the total energy. The new feather production requires large production of proteins so they must eat more than any other season to grow faster. Therefore, molting in the warm season is advantageous because the bird can eat more and molt faster. The American Redstart is a common bird found in North America that is well study for its molting strategy. The male has a bright red orange feathers for the breeding season. They molt right after they care for their young. They migrate so the day to departure the area depends on how fast the male is able to molt into this bright color or not. If the male can leave the young early enough, they succeed to molt in this color, but if they are late, the molting will not be complete. This results the late molting males to have a lower breeding rate than the ones that completed their molting.
Comments
comment
"The American Redstart is a common bird found in North America that is well study for its molting strategy." Perhaps you meant to say "well-studied"
commet
As an outside perspective, it would be beneficial elaborating what exactly "molting" for birds is. I understand that it has something to do with production of feathers, but not much context to describe what it is. Would be helpful to those who dont know.
include what molting is
I know the comment before me mentioned this too, but I think it's important to add on to what they were saying.
By adding the context of "molting", you can further become more specific as the paragraph progresses. Start with what molting is, then go on about how this is well studied in The American Redstarts, and further become more specific with the details as the paragraph progresses.