Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses of three song parameters in an Atlantic Canadian population of European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris and whether they signal age

Abstract

Females from a range of taxa prefer to mate with older males as they may gain direct and/or indirect benefits that younger males are unable to provide. Male birds commonly sing to attract mates and older males are able to convey their superiority through song. European Starlings, <i>Sturnus vulgaris</i>, are a well-studied open-ended learner. Starling song has within-song type variations which are not well studied, and its function in Starlings is unknown. Repertoire size, within-song type variation and song bout length, as they relate to male age, were examined in an eastern Canadian population of Starlings. Surprisingly, repertoire size and song bout length did not increase with age in our analyses. However, younger males had more within-song type variation. These findings suggest that male repertoire and bout length do not signal age within my study population while within song type variants may signal age, playing a potential role in mate attraction.