Unlike American Robins (Turdus migratorius), European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) do not display roost-time restlessness

Abstract

The daily perch-hop activity of six captive European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) was observed under natural lighting over 12 months. Moderately high levels of early morning activity gradually declined throughout the day. Unlike robins (Turdus migratorius), however, the starlings showed no evidence of the brief burst of activity at dusk called roost-time restlessness (Eiserer, 1979). The present data support the hypothesis that roost-time restlessness depends upon the conjunction of territorial and roosting behaviors, which is the case for robins but not for starlings. © 1989 Psychonomic Society, Inc.