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117 results for “starling”
Immune challenge reduces begging behavior and modifies begging call structure in spotless starling nestlings
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Data from: Timing of egg-laying in relation to a female's social environment in European starlings
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Data from: Physiological predictors of reproductive performance in the European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
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Data from: Environment but not geography explains genetic variation in the invasive and largely panmictic European starling in North America
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Season, anthocyanin supplementation, and flight training have mixed effects on the antioxidant system of migratory European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
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Unravelling the role of thyroid hormones in seasonal neuroplasticity in European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris)
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The effects of dietary linoleic acid and hydrophilic antioxidants on basal, peak, and sustained metabolism in flight trained European Starlings
<p>Dietary micronutrients have the ability to strongly influence animal physiology and ecology. For songbirds, dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) and antioxidants are hypothesized to be particularly important micronutrients because of their influence on an individual's capacity for aerobic metabolism and recovery from extended bouts of exercise. However, the influence of specific fatty acids and hydrophilic antioxidants on whole-animal performance remain largely untested. We used diet manipulations to directly test the effects of dietary PUFA, specifically linoleic acid (18:2n6), and anthocyanins, a hydrophilic antioxidant, on basal metabolic rate (BMR), peak metabolic rate (PMR), and rates of fat catabolism, lean catabolism, and energy expenditure during sustained flight in a wind tunnel in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris). BMR, PMR, energy expenditure, and fat metabolism decreased and lean catabolism increased over the course of the experiment in birds fed a high (32%) 18:2n6 diet, while birds fed a low (13%) 18:2n6 diet exhibited the reverse pattern. Additionally, energy expenditure, fat catabolism, and flight duration were all subject to diet-specific effects of whole-body fat content. Dietary antioxidants and diet-related differences in tissue fatty acid composition were not directly related to any measure of whole-animal performance. Together, these results suggest that the effect of dietary 18:2n6 on performance was most likely the result of the signaling properties of 18:2n6. This implies that dietary PUFA influence the energetic capabilities of songbirds, and could strongly influence songbird ecology, given their availability in terrestrial systems.</p>
Data from: Individual variation in parental workload and breeding productivity in female European starlings: is the effort worth it?
We analyzed individual variation in work load (nest visit rate) during chick-rearing, and the consequences of this variation in terms of breeding productivity, in a highly synchronous breeder, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) focusing on female birds. There was marked (10- to 16-fold) variation in total, female and male nest visit rates, among individuals, but individual variation in female nest visit rate was independent of environment (rainfall, temperature) and metrics of individual quality (laying date, clutch size, amount of male provisioning help), and was only weakly associated with chick demand (i.e., day 6 brood size). Female nest visit rate was independent of date and experimentally delayed birds provisioned at the same rate as peak-nesting birds; supporting a lack of effect of date per se. Brood size at fledging was positively but weakly related to total nest visit rate (male + female), with >fivefold variation in nest visit rate for any given brood size, and in females brood size at fledging and chick mass at fledging were independent of female nest visit rate, that is, individual variation in workload was not associated with higher productivity. Nevertheless, nest visit rate in females was repeatable among consecutive days (6–8 posthatching), and between peak (first) and second broods, but not among years. Our data suggest that individual females behave as if committed to a certain level of parental care at the outset of their annual breeding attempt, but this varies among years, that is, behavior is not fixed throughout an individual's life but represents an annually variable decision. We suggest females are making predictable decisions about their workload during provisioning that maximizes their overall fitness based on an integration of information on their current environment (although these cues currently remain unidentified).
Data from: Bacteria and the evolution of honest signals. The case of ornamental throat feathers in spotless starlings
1.Mechanisms guaranteeing reliability of messages are essential in understanding the underlying information and evolution of signals. Microorganisms may degrade signalling traits and therefore, influence the transmitted information and evolution of these characters. The role of microorganisms in animal signalling has, however, rarely been investigated. 2.Here, we explore a possible role for feather-degrading bacteria driving the design of ornamental throat feathers in male spotless starlings (Sturnus unicolor). We estimated length, bacterial load, degradation status, and susceptibility to degradation by keratinolytic bacteria in those feathers, compared to non-ornamental adjacent feathers in males, as well as to throat feathers in females. In addition, the volume of the uropygial gland and its secretion was measured, and the secretion extracted. We also experimentally evaluated the capacity of each secretion to inhibit growth of a keratinolytic bacterium. 3.The apical part of male ornamental throat feathers harboured more bacteria and degraded more quickly than the basal part; these patterns were not detected in female throat feathers or in non-ornamental male feathers. Moreover, degradation status of male and female throat feathers did not differ, but was positively associated with feather bacterial density. Finally, the size of the uropygial gland in both males and females predicted volume and the inhibitory capacity of secretion against feather-degrading bacteria. Only in males was uropygial gland size negatively associated with the level of feather degradation. 4.All results indicate differential susceptibility of different parts of throat feathers to keratinolytic bacterial attack, which supports the possibility that throat feathers in starlings reflect individual ability to combat feather-degrading bacteria honestly. This is further supported by the relationship detected between antimicrobial properties of uropygial secretion and the level of feather degradation. 5.Our results suggest that selection pressures exerted by feather-degrading bacteria on hosts may promote evolution of particular morphologies of secondary sexual traits with different susceptibility to bacterial degradation that reliably inform of their bacterial load. Those results will help to understand the evolution of ornamental signals.
Data from: Selection, constraint and the evolution of coloration in African starlings
Colorful plumage plays a prominent role in evolution of birds, influencing communication (sexual/social selection) and crypsis (natural selection). Comparative studies have focused primarily upon these selective pressures, but the mechanisms underlying color production can also be important by constraining the color gamut upon which selection acts. Iridescence is particularly interesting to study the interaction between selection and color-producing mechanisms because a broad range of colors can be produced with a shared template, and innovations to this template further expand this by increasing the parameters interacting to produce colors. We examine the patterns of ornamentation and dichromatism evolution in African starlings, a group remarkably diverse in color production mechanisms, social systems, and ecologies. We find that the presence of iridescence is ancestral to the group, being predominantly lost in females and cooperative breeders, as well as species with less labile templates. Color-producing mechanisms interact and are the main predictors of plumage ornamentation and elaboration, with little influence of selective pressures in their evolution. Dichromatism, however is influenced by social system and the loss of iridescence. Our results show the importance of considering both selection and constraints, and the different roles that they may have, in the evolution of ornamentation and dimorphism.
Density dependence of clutch size and offspring sex ratio in starling colonies
<p><span>Optimal life-history theory predicts that individuals should adjust both the number and the sex of their offspring to maximize fitness in response to environmental and social factors such as breeding density. While reductions in optimal clutch size are well-studied in birds, the evidence for sex ratio adjustments is still equivocal and, so far, we lack a thorough understanding of how these strategies interact to maximize fitness. Here, we investigate how breeding density simultaneously affects brood sex ratio and clutch size in a sexually dimorphic and polygynous bird. We tested the prediction that mothers breeding at a higher density lay smaller clutches and overproduce daughters, the sex with less variable fitness returns and that disperses further away from their natal territory. We distributed nest boxes at either a high (HD) or a low density (LD) and monitored clutch sizes and sex ratios during five years in a wild breeding colony of spotless starlings. While mothers breeding in HD nests produced more daughters than those breeding in LD nests, the density dependence of clutch size varied among years, with a tendency to lay smaller clutches in HD nests. Our results suggest that mothers consistently adjust offspring sex ratio in response to breeding density, whereas adjustments in clutch size varied in a more complex way. These results support the role of sex allocation strategies in response to density and show that further theoretical and empirical research is required to understand the interaction between clutch size and sex ratio adjustments in animals.</span></p>
FIGURE 34 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 34. Author's scaled illustration showing the morphologies of the endemic Mascarene starlings. Fregilupus varius (above); Necropsar rodericanus (centre); Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus gen.nov. sp.nov. (below).
FIGURE 33 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 33. Skins of the two subspecies of Sturnia erythropygia, the Southeast Asian starling species that most closely resembles Fregilupus varius in colouration. From left to right, dorsal view, lateral view: Sturnia erythropygia erythropygia NHMUK 1898.4.28.38 ♂; NHMUK 1898.4.28.40 ♀; Sturnia erythropygia andamanensis NHMUK 1955.6.3.28 ♂; NHMUK 1955.6.3.27 ♀.
FIGURE 31 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 31. Comparison of rostra of Necropsar rodericanus showing possible sexual dimorphism. A–B, lateral view, C–D, dorsal view. A, D. NHMUK u/r; B, C. NHMUK A1468 u/s. Note the shorter, deeper and wider bill in A and D, and here interpreted as female. Scale bar = 10mm.
FIGURE 32 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 32. Comparison of mandibles of A. NHMUK S/1973.29.14 Sturnus vulgaris and B. MNHN MAD6931 Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus gen.nov. sp.nov. The mandible of S. vulgaris, a powerful gaping species, most closely resembles that of Cryptopsar. Scale bar = 10mm.
FIGURE 30b in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 30b. View from the centre of Ile Gombrani. The vegetation today is dominated by introduced trees and shrubs.
FIGURE 28 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 28. Comparison of culmen length in Fregilipus varius. The shorter, straighter-billed specimens (circled) are here interpreted as probable females, and suggest that the species was sexually dimorphic.
FIGURE 27. A in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 27. A selection of skins of Southeast Asian black and white Sturnidae. From left to right: Gracupica nigricollis NHMUK 1915.12.18.105 ♂; NHMUK 1955.1.3651 ♀; Leucopsar rothschildi NHMUK 1969.41.820 ♀; NHMUK 1936.1.1.6 ♂; NHMUK 1937.11.4.1 ♀ juvenile; Acridotheres melanopterus NHMUK 1959.28.8 ♂; NHMUK 1959.28.11 ♀.
FIGURE 22 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 22. Comparison of femora (right side) of Mascarene starlings with Acridotheres tristis cranial aspect. A. AMNH 306353 Fregilupus varius ♂; B. MNHN MAD8850 Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus gen.nov. sp.nov. u/s: C. NHMUK A1473 Necropsar rodericanus u/s; D. NHMUK S/1957.15.9 Acridotheres tristis u/s. Scale bar = 10mm.
FIGURE 11 in Systematics, morphology, and ecological history of the Mascarene starlings (Aves: Sturnidae) with the description of a new genus and species from Mauritius
FIGURE 11. Comparison of crania of Mascarene starlings with Acridotheres tristis, posterior view; A. AMNH 306353 Fregilupus varius ♂; B. MNHN MADu/r u/s Cryptopsar ischyrhynchus gen.nov. sp.nov. u/s; C. NHMUK A9050 (lectotype; formerly A1468) Necropsar rodericanus u/s; D. NHMUK S/1980.8.2 Acridotheres tristis ♀. Scale bar = 10mm.
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Allen Brain Atlas
Allen Brain Atlas is an Allen Institute collection of brain map atlases, datasets, APIs, and analysis tools covering mouse, human, and non-human primate brain resources.
Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
ABODe is a University of Edinburgh DataShare dataset for behavior classification in group-housed mice using home-cage video, identities, bounding boxes, ground-plate positions, and annotator labels.
DANDI Archive for NWB datasets
DANDI is a BRAIN Initiative archive for publishing and sharing neurophysiology data, including electrophysiology, optophysiology, and behavioral data packaged as NWB and related standards.
International Brain Laboratory public data
The International Brain Laboratory public data releases expose standardized mouse decision-making experiments, including Neuropixels recordings, widefield calcium imaging, behavior, and session metadata accessed through the ONE API.
OpenNeuro
OpenNeuro is a free, open platform for sharing neuroimaging datasets, with public search, dataset pages, and download paths for web, S3, DataLad, and the OpenNeuro CLI.