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Common Starling Parents Called Less Often as Their Nestlings Grew Older

Adult common starling feeding a chick at a nest cavity
Research · Behaviour

Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) parents in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, called much less often when approaching the nest with food as their nestlings grew older. Researchers recorded seven early-season and four late-season broods when the chicks were 2, 4, 11 and 13 days old, and also noted whether the other parent was inside the nest box.

The decline with nestling age was steep. Parents called on 62% of provisioning visits when chicks were two days old and 36% on day four, but on only 4% of visits on both days 11 and 13. Late-season parents reduced their calling earlier: on day four, calls occurred on 17% of visits in late broods compared with 50% in early broods.

Whether the other parent was present made an even stronger difference. Provisioning adults called on 85% of 68 visits when their mate was inside the nest box, compared with 17% of 877 visits when the mate was absent. The authors therefore suggest that the calls were directed mainly to the other parent rather than to the nestlings themselves.

Young starling chicks are blind, helpless and initially unable to regulate their own body temperature, so one parent may still be brooding when the other returns with food. The authors suggest that calling at this stage could help coordinate parental care and make provisioning more efficient. As the chicks grow and require less brooding, that coordination may become less necessary; reducing calls could also avoid the potential cost of drawing attention to the nest. The study did not test predation risk directly.

Sources and image credit

  1. Brown, C. A., Latouf, M. E., Foote, J. R., Collings, K. C., & Barber, C. A. (2026). European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) parents call less often as their nestlings age.Primary peer-reviewed research article published online 3 September 2026. Eleven broods were recorded at nestling ages 2, 4, 11 and 13 days. Parental calling fell from 62% of visits on day 2 and 36% on day 4 to 4% on both days 11 and 13. Parents called on 85% of visits when the other parent was inside the nest box versus 17% when the mate was absent, supporting the authors' interpretation that calls were mainly directed to the other parent.
  2. Brown, C. A., Latouf, M. E., Foote, J. R., Collings, K. C., & Barber, C. A. (2026). European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) parents call less often as their nestlings age [Dataset].Supporting dataset for the Halifax, Nova Scotia field study of provisioning-associated parental calls.

Image: Common starling feeding a chick at a nest cavity in the Saint Petersburg region, Russia, 28 May 2020. Photo: Andrey Gulivanov / Wikimedia Commons / Flickr. CC BY 2.0. Representative provisioning image; not a study bird. · CC BY 2.0 · Source

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