Shakespeare’s Starlings

Recursion, Language, and Starlings

It has been claimed that recursion is one of the properties that distinguishes human language from any other form of animal communication. Contrary to this claim, a recent study purports to demonstrate center-embedded recursion in starlings. I show that the performance of the birds in this study can be explained by a counting strategy, without any appreciation of center-embedding. To demonstrat...

Starlings in the Pacific Northwest

Anaemic starlings have fewer chicks (sometimes)

In the murky waters of the Amazon River, electric eels (Electrophorus electricus) bombard their prey with quick-fire bursts of electricity. Just like a TASER, a rapid volley of electrical impulses causes repeated muscle contractions and immobilizes prey. Eels can then swallow their unlucky victims whole. Although this electrical weaponry is around two and a half times more powerful than the dis...

Naphthalene Shows No Repellency for Starlings

Coop. Park Stud. Unit Publ. CPSU/OSU 84-11, Coll. For., Oregon State Univ., Corvallis. 35pp. LEE, W. S. 1986. The national wildlife refuge system. Pages 412-460 in R. L. Di Silvestro, ed. Audubon wildlife report 1986. Natl. Audubon Soc., New York, N.Y. WEEDEN, R. 1976. Nonconsumptive users: a myth. Alaska Conserv. Rev. 17:3,15. WILKES, B. 1977. The myth of the non-consumptive user. Can. Field-N...

Photophase and Testicular Recrudescence in European Starlings

In an elaborate sequence of experiments, Bissonnette (1930, 1931, 1937) demonstrated a positive correlation between testicular growth in European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) and seasonally increasing photoperiods occurring during the winter and spring months in north temperate zone latitudes. These results eventually led to the classification of the starling as a primary photoperiodic species ...