Sex identification of adult Dunlins Calidris alpina alpina migrating in autumn through Baltic region

Abstract

Eighty Dunlins Calidris alpina were trapped and measured in autumn in northern Poland and sexed by dissection or DNA analysis. A discriminant function, based on bill and wing length, was also constructed to predict the sex of adult Dunlins. This function classified correctly 100% of males and 97.3% of females. The resulted classification rate is one of the highest among studied wader species. The presented discriminant equation may be successfully used for sexing Dunlins when blood sampling is impossible and could be applied to samples collected in the past providing the opportunity to re-examine the results of previous analysis.