Feathers of Three Waterfowl Bird Species from Northern Iran for Heavy Metals Biomonitoring.

Waterbirds are considered the effective sentinels of aquatic ecosystems contamination and their feathers are widely used as non-destructive biological tools for contaminant biomonitoring. In this work, we measure and evaluate the concentrations of lead, copper and zinc in the breast feathers of three species namely Fulica atra, Anas crecca and Anas platyrhynchos in the wetland National Park Boujagh. Levels of lead (Pb), copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn) were below the threshold that causes sub-lethal and reproductive effects.