... ( Sturnus vulgaris ) eggs to characterize the timing of testosterone metabolism and determine whether etiocholanolone, a prominent metabolite of testosterone in avian embryos, is capable of affecting early embryonic development. Tritiated testosterone was injected into freshly laid eggs to characterize...

... spontaneous saccades that follow an endogenous oculomotor strategy. We used new eye-tracking technology specialized for small birds to study the oculomotor behavior of an open-habitat, ground-foraging songbird, the European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ). We found that starlings primarily move their eyes along...

..., such as migratory flight, and mounting an immune response. We experimentally tested this prediction by studying immune function in European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris , flown in a wind tunnel. Specifically, we predicted that constitutive immune function decreases in response to training and, additionally...

... remaining equal this results in a higher energy budget. We manipulated food availability by varying the foraging costs and studied effects on daily energy expenditure (DEE) and energy allocation of captive starlings Sturnus vulgaris . Birds in a closed economy earned their food by flying between two perches...

... of flight in a wind tunnel by four European starlings Sturnus vulgaris made using three independent techniques: heat transfer modelling, doubly labelled water (DLW)and mask respirometry. We based our heat transfer model on thermal images of the surface temperature of the birds and air flow past the body...

... technique was used to measure the energy cost of short flights in the nectarivorous Palestine sunbird Nectarinia osea (mean mass 6.17±0.16 g, N =8)and the non-nectarivorous starling Sturnus vulgaris (mean mass 70.11±1.11 g, N =9). The technique was initially calibrated in five individuals for each species...

... of Biologists Limited 2003 2003 e-vector polarisation sensitivity vision foraging avian Japanese quail European starling Coturnix coturnix japonica Sturnus vulgaris In the literature on the ecology of vision, light is often described in terms of its spectral properties but rarely...

... of yolk precursors (vitellogenin and very-low density lipoprotein, VLDL) by the liver, and of albumen by the oviduct. We gave European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ) silastic implants containing estradiol prior to egg formation, which we predicted would increase egg mass. As expected, exogenous estradiol...

...S. Ward; J. M. V. Rayner; U. Möller; D. M. Jackson; W. Nachtigall; J. R. Speakman ABSTRACT Infrared thermography was used to measure heat transfer by radiation and the surface temperature of starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ) ( N =4) flying in a wind tunnel at 6–14 m s −1 and at 15–25 °C. Heat transfer...

...N. S. Hart; J. C. Partridge; I. C. Cuthill ABSTRACT Microspectrophotometric measurements of retinal photoreceptors from the European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ) revealed four classes of single cone, containing visual pigments with wavelengths of maximum absorbance (λ max ) at 563, 504, 449...

... studied its contractile and mechanical properties in European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ) and pigeons ( Columba livia ), two birds with contrasting flight styles. We made in situ measurements of isometric forces of humeral elevation and humeral rotation and, in addition, measured the extent...

...Bret W. Tobalske ABSTRACT Electromyographic (EMG) and kinematic data were collected from European starlings ( Sturnus vulgaris ) flying at a range of speeds from 8 to 18 m s −1 in a variable-speed windtunnel. Their flight at all speeds consisted of alternating flapping and non-flapping phases. Wing...

... starling pectoralis in vivo force flight Sturnus vulgaris Studies of animal flight have relied largely upon kinematic data obtained from high-speed light ciné films and measurements of musculoskeletal morphology to estimate the power and mechanical requirements of flight, using models based...