The function of the complex song of the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) was examined. Song playback experiments showed that both male and female starlings were attracted by song, and complex song inhibited males from entering nestboxes. Wild starlings (at least two years old when first recorded) showed extensive changes in the composition of their song phrase repertoires and most also increased the size of their repertoires, which will result in a correlation between age and repertoire size in this species. Females prefer males that have more complex song, and this preference remained significant when preferences for certain nest sites were controlled. Males with larger repertoires did not spend more time incubating or make more feeding visits to nestlings than did males with smaller repertoires. The evolution of complex song in the European starling is consistent with an age-indicator model of sexual selection, in which aspects of male quality correlated with age are advertised by the complexity of male song.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.41726 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Mountjoy, Donald James |
| Contributors | Lemon, R. E. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of Biology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001402957, proquestno: NN94690, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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