The use of artificial nest sites erected for starlings in Canterbury, New Zealand

Breeding of starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) in nest boxes of various types

“…The box material had little or no effect 'On success, as can be seen by the close similarity of the results in the 180 em' boxes ( Coleman (1974), and Lumsden (1976) all found that starlings preferred the smallest entrance hole when given a choice, but none of these authors used entrances as small as those we used at Valley Road. McGilvrey & Uhler (1971) found that starlings offered sites with large entrance holes preferred those 620 mm deep to those 280 mm deep-a close parallel to our power pole results.…”

“…Karlsson & Nilsson (1977) found that the clutch size of starlings was not related to the basal area of nest boxes over the range 120--225 em', though they did find that both great tits (Parus major) and pied flycatchers (Ficedula hypoleuca) laid more eggs in larger boxes; they did il'ot report data on success or rate of use. Verheyen (1969) found that starlings in Belgium, when given a choice, preferred boxes facing south-east, and high sites; Coleman (1974) found a much less marked preference for high sites. Thus, these other studies confirm our findings on the depth and darkness of the nest cavity and do not contradict our optimum range for basal area.…”

The Starling Mating System as an Outcome of the Sexual Conflict

“…In migrant populations, males arrive to the breeding grounds in early spring and occupy one to several nest-cavities to which they attract females (Feare, 1984). In some areas, population size is limited by the availability of nest-cavities (Coleman, 1974;Smith, unpublished manuscript). Males become polygynous either by attracting several females or by occasionally taking over females from neighbouring males when these disappear.…”

Biometrics and seasonal changes in weight and fat deposition of Cetti's Warblers Cettia cetti in Central Greece

“…The fact that fat score was not a significant predictor of weight may be due to the relatively small amount of fat this species carries, so that the contribution of fat score to variation in body weight is small in relation to variation due to other factors such as the amount of recently eaten food and, in the case of breeding females, by the presence of eggs developing within the reproductive tract. Other studies have found a relationship between weight and fat deposition, but fat scores are not always a reliable index of fat mass in individual birds due to wide variation within a single fat class (Coleman & Robson 1975, Scott et al 1995. The fact that females show increased fat scores during breeding may be due to hormonal changes, such as those related to the development of the brood patch, and, even more so, to the development of the eggs, which places a considerable burden on the female (Gill 1995, Redfern 2010.…”