Ardea
Official journal of the Netherlands Ornithologists' Union

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Pinxten R., Eens M. & Verheyen R.F. (1993) Male and female nest attendance during incubation in the facultatively polygynous European Starling. ARDEA 81 (2): 125-133
We examined parental roles in incubation with respect to mating status in the facultatively polygynous European starling Sturnus vulgaris. In monogamous pairs, male and female nest attendance did not differ significantly. In primary and secondary broods, male nest attendance was significantly lower than that of the female. Bigamous males assisted their second female in incubating only when the time interval between the onset of incubation of the two females was less than five days. Polygynously mated females compensated for the loss of, or reduction in, male assistance by significantly increasing their own nest attendance. They took shorter foraging recesses and made significantly more recesses per hour than monogamous females. Nevertheless, total nest attendance in polygynous broods (85%) still was significantly lower than that in monogamous broods (98%), indicating that polygynously mated females cannot compensate fully. We found no significant difference in incubation duration and hatching success between monogamous and polygynously mated females suggesting that the latter could maintain sufficient nest attendance for successful incubation. Future studies should concentrate on the effect of single-sex incubation on the condition and survival of female starlings.


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