Avian feathers need to be replaced periodically to fulfill their functions, with natural, social, and sexual selection presumably driving the evolution of molting strategies. In temperate birds, a common pattern is to molt feathers immediately after the breeding season, the pre-basic molt. However, some species undergo another molt in winter-spring, the pre-alternate molt. Using a sample of 188 European passerine species, Bayesian phylogenetic mixed models, and correlated evolution analyses, we tested whether the occurrence of the pre-alternate molt was positively associated with proxies for sexual selection (sexual selection hypothesis) and non-sexual social selection (social selection hypothesis) and with factors related to feather wear (feather wear hypothesis) and time constraints on the pre-basic molt (time constraints hypothesis). We found that the pre-alternate molt was more frequent in migratory and less gregarious species inhabiting open/xeric habitats and feeding on the wing, and marginally more frequent in species with strong sexual selection and those showing a winter territorial behavior. Moreover, an increase in migratory behavior and sexual selection intensity preceded the acquisition of the pre-alternate molt. These results provide support for the feather wear hypothesis, partial support for the sexual selection and time constraints hypotheses, and no support for the social selection hypothesis.