After second year male European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) do not signal age through repertoire size or song bout length over a 1-year period

Abstract

In many passerine species, male song functions as an honest signal of male quality. Male age is one of these qualities, yielding benefits that are direct (e.g. breeding experience) and/or indirect (e.g. viability and good genes). Male European Starlings Sturnus vulgaris are open-ended learners with long and complex songs that add songs to their repertoire throughout their life. We investigated whether repertoire size and song bout duration change with respect to male age from one year to the next in an Atlantic Canadian population of European Starlings. We found that male repertoire size and song bout length did not increase significantly in ASY (after second year) males over a 1-year period. Similarly, we did not detect a relationship between male condition and either repertoire size or song bout length from this small sample. Other aspects of song may be better at signalling male age to females in our population.