VARIATION IN SINGING ACTIVITY DURING THE BREEDING CYCLE OF THE EUROPEAN STARLING STURNUS-VULGARIS

We examined the pattern of song output of male European starlings duri ng different stages of the breeding cycle. Song activity dropped drama tically at pairing, suggesting that the song has an important mate-att raction function. Singing in the nest box occurred almost only when ma les were unpaired and when prospecting females were in the vicinity of the nest box. Pairing in starlings had several other effects on male behaviour: the occurrence of wingwaving (a visual display sometimes as sociated with singing) and of carrying green nest materials dropped si gnificantly after pairing. Unpaired males sang significantly more clos e (less-than-or-equal-to 1 m) to the nest box than paired males. After pair formation, an increase in singing activity was observed in the p eriod coinciding with the presumed fertile period of the female. Evide nce is presented that by singing males try to stimulate their females to solicit copulations during this period. Monogamous males almost com pletely stop singing after the egg laying period, whereas males attemp ting to become polygynous start/continue singing at another nest box a t a level comparable to that of unpaired males.