Organization of song in the European starling: species-specifïcity and individual differences.

In this paper we give a detailed description of the song and the song organization of the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris LINNAEUS) during the breeding season. We recorded songs of 25 males in Belgium and of 2 males in New Zealand. We show that there are clear species-specific characteristics in the complex song of the starling, but also reveal many individual differences. During the breeding season, male starlings sing the majority of their song (90 \% or more) in long and complex song bouts. These songs bouts consist of a rapid succession of a great variety of different song types resulting in a song with much contrast. Although there are large differences in average song bout length among males (range: 15-35 seconds), the song bouts of all males we studied, both in Belgium and New Zealand, were composed of four categories of song types following each other in a fixed order. Detailed analysis of the sequencing of song types within song bouts of two males showed that song types are not presented randomly: a given song type can be preceded and followed by only a limited number of other song types. The majority of song types in the repertoires of starlings is individually characteristic. We found large differences in repertoire size among males, extending from 21 to 67 song types. There appeared to be little difference between Belgian and New Zealand starlings in song organization.