alternate plumage

American

noun

Ornithology.

(of birds having more than one plumage in their cycle of molts) the plumage of the second molt, usually brighter than the basic plumage.

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alternate plumage

“They talk about ‘I think this is a worn alternate plumage of a second year whatever Iceland Gull which really looks a whole lot like a Herring Gull’.

From The Guardian ● Nov. 14, 2018

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023