Female Song in European Starlings - the Case of Noncompetitive Song-Matching
Résumé
This paper concerns the occurrence of female song in European starlings Sturnus vulgaris and aims to identify the elements of song that are similar to that of male starling song. Testosterone-implanted females produced a song very close in structure to male song (whistles and warbling) but most of the typical male species-specific elements were missing. The female repertoire was only slightly smaller than most male repertoires. Sonographic structure of the songs of the members of a polygynous trio (a male and two females) were strikingly similar. All whistle types were shared by the females and all but one were the same as their mate's whistle types (especially mimicries of other species' songs). Most of the females' songs, although rarely heard, were produced during female-female or male-female song-matching bouts during non-agonistic situations.