A Preliminary Note on Plumage Colouration in the Japanese Marsh Warbler Locustella pryeri: A Comparison between Two Local Populations

Abstract

The Japanese Marsh Warbler Locustella pryeri is an endangered species that has two large breeding populations (Hotoke-numa and Tone River) in Japan. These are thought to comprise the same subspecies, although the morphological and genetic data for the two populations have never been compared. Recent body measurements suggest that these two populations may differ in wing length. In this study, we compared the plumage colorations of these two populations using photospectrometric measurement, and found them to have similar reflectance patterns of plumage coloration. Although we found no difference in colours between the two populations, future work should concentrate on describing and comparing the two populations using additional colour data.