Describes how and why animals shed their feathers, hair, shells, horns etc., with emphasis on the molting of birds.

Molting is a growth related process in birds in which certain feathers are shed and replaced during the life cycle. The timing, duration, seasonality, extent and pattern of molting follows certain strategies. This book reviews and describes these strategies for nearly 200 species of birds from a 30-year study of birds of the Central Amazon. Each account is to be illustrated with several color photos focusing on wing and tail feather molting.