The European Starling

This will be the first installment on a series on birds. Birds are pretty cool. Birding is becoming more and more popular each year with millions looking at birds through their binoculars, enjoying the songs, or watching them at the bird feeder. I’ve spent the past three years studying European Starlings and Bengalese Finches in the lab at the University of Utah, and other birds at home and in the sticks. I hope some of the things that I post will be fun and maybe you’ll learn a fun fact or two.

Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are considered by most people in the U.S. as pests and that they should be eradicated in North America due to being aggressive foreign invaders to nesting areas of native species, although some studies have shown that their impact on other species is low (see birds.cornell.com). They were introduced to Central Park in New York City in the 1890. It is believed that 100 individuals were introduced in order to establish all of the birds in Shakespeare’s works. The North American population is now believed to be between 150 – 200 million. Because they eat anything from invertebrates to seeds, they are able in inhabit most habitats around the globe. Many people take measures to prevent them from nesting in sites that have previously been used by other birds by shooting them, destroying nests, or creating nesting boxes which starlings cannot enter. It is also believed that because of their colonial nature, many are responsible for spreading disease to farmyard animals.
Despite their bad reputation, starlings are incredible animals. They are very smart, fearless defenders of their young and amazing singers. I have witnessed on many occasions males and females dive bombing those who try to mess with their nests, their singing ability for hours on end and using their “bird brains” to outfox scientists.

The vocal ability of the starling is quite amazing. Their song is usually a series of rattles and whistled notes, often mimicking other bird species and other noises in their environment.


Song birds such as starlings sing with two “voice boxes” which is called the syrinx located right where the trachea bifurcates into the two primary bronchi. This gives them the amazing ability produce two sounds at once, independently enable them immediately go from a low not to a high one without making a mistake. The left side of the syrinx generates the low frequencies and the right for the high.

If you listen to the first part of this next one you can hear that the starling is mimicking a shorebird. This guy was recorded at Farmington Bay. (We know he is really mimicking by using a spectrograph of his song)

Click on this link to hear two songs: http://davos.podbean.com/
and then on Starling 00018 (mimicks a shore bird) and 00030

Shortly after I began studying starlings, I soon became enamored with the singing ability of the starling from listening to many different recorded songs from males in Farmington Bay and Ogden Canyon. Our work focused on how the male’s ability to “get some” was related to the impressiveness of his song was to the female to whom he was singing.

In the spring the males will search for a best place to build a nest and sit by it and sing their hearts out hoping for a female to come. If she thinks that he’s a catch, then she will allow him to mate with her and they will build a nest. But the story isn’t the rosy monogamous tale as it first appears to be. Between copulation and nest building the female will find other males and mate with them. So, as it happens, males often get tricked into raising someone else’s young.

Below is an abstract about the study that I published in the U of U research journal and a poster presentation that I gave.

When my friend Coen Elemans, a Post-Doc at the University of Utah began a study on the muscles of the syrinx of starling last year he found that it was incredibly difficult to catch them. Starlings seem to be quite intelligent birds and would learn very quickly what he was trying to do. His main method was essentially a box and stick. He constructed a screen cage about four foot cubed in size and propped it with a stick. When a huge flock came by into the Clinton farm he was at and under the cage to get at the seeds he had placed, he would pull the stick. The problem was that many times they would all get out and he would have to wait another week because the birds would remember the trap. Eventually he did get some and published his study on them. One unfortunate guy didn’t make it and was used in project mentioned the later in this article.

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology has a page about starlings (and about numerous other birds). Click on the link and then on listen to songs to hear more recordings of the starling.

http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/European_Starling.html#sound

Moving from song, I studied on my own the skeletal structure of the European Starling. The picture shown is a starling skeleton that I put together. Such an activity gives you a much more understanding about how and why birds can fly.

If you want to learn how to obtain you own skeleton see below:

After obtaining a bird or mammal, you need to strip the feathers and the skin off. Then, removal of as much muscle and other tissue is required. Note: the amount of tissue removed will determine the amount of time in the next step which is drying; the beetle larvae will eat everything but the bone. I usually then tie a piece of string around the bird (depending on size) to hold the wings against the body and place it in a place where the bird can completely dry out without other insects getting at it.

I usually remove as much muscle as I can to prevent fungus from infecting the bird which can decimate your beetle colony. The specimen is then placed into a container with a colony of dermestid beetles. I kept mine in a bucket outside (sometimes inside when it was cold without my wife knowing about it). You have to keep your beetles warm to eat well, so you have to be committed. I obtained my beetles from a professor in the anthropology department at the U. I have also seen some available on the internet for sale.

Dermestid beetles are pretty wicked. They are small black beetles smaller than a dime. It is the larvae that munch the flesh off the bones. Because the adult beetle doesn’t eat flesh they just lives out their days out in the container reproducing until they die.

So, if you keep your colony warm and spray some water in occasionally, after about two weeks your bird should be nothing but bones; then comes the fun part of putting all of the bones back together. I used an ornithology text (see references) on my first one as a guide. Fortunately most of the vertebrae of birds are fused to provide stability.

To connect the bones I just used run-of-the-mill super glue. When I was finished assembling, I sprayed it with a spray-can of furniture lacquer to seal the bones and give it some strength. As you can see in the photo I haven’t put his wings on yet.

Now you can see the structure of your animal. Some may think that it is weird or dare I say devilish, but I think that you get a much deeper understanding about and more respect for an animal after you examine its bones……especially humans.


Special note: possessing most birds in North America without a permit is illegal, dead or alive. Starlings are not protected because of their foreign invasive status so you can do what you want with them (sounds like some other policies I know). Restrictions on mammals are much more relaxed, unless they are game animals. Check with state and federal agencies for specifics.

References:

birds.cornell.edu

Ornithology 2nd Edition by Frank B. Gill

University of Utah Undergraduate Research Abstracts
Spring 2006 Vol. 6