What age does the Hudsonian Whimbrel often reach before attaining sexual maturity?
Answer
Three or four years of age
A critical vulnerability contributing to the slow population recovery of the Hudsonian Whimbrel is its slow rate of maturation. These birds require a significant amount of time before they are capable of breeding and contributing new individuals to the population pool. Specifically, they often do not reach sexual maturity until they are three or four years old. This slow pace of recruitment means that if high adult mortality rates, caused by factors like severe weather, predation at stopovers, or human activities, occur during migration, the population's ability to rebound is inherently slow, potentially forcing the evolutionary trajectory into a bottleneck.
Related Questions
What specialized bill morphology instantly identifies the whimbrel across shorebird species?Where does the Hudsonian Whimbrel breed compared to the Eurasian Whimbrel?What primary food source do whimbrels seek using deep probing in soft substrates?What is the southern extent of the Hudsonian Whimbrel's wintering range during its massive migration?Which subspecies of Eurasian Whimbrel is recognized as being paler and found in eastern Asia?During a falling tide, which whimbrel group probes the lower, wetter zones where the deepest prey resides?What age does the Hudsonian Whimbrel often reach before attaining sexual maturity?What is the primary threat concentrated along the migration corridor for the Hudsonian Whimbrel?How does bill efficiency directly correlate with foraging success during the coastal staging period?To which continents/regions does the Eurasian Whimbrel migrate to winter, depending on the subspecies?