Saint Mary’s University students study European Starlings on campus

Students at SMU are getting a close-up look at life inside the nest, by studying European Starlings as part of a 20-year research project.

Forty-five European Starling nesting boxes live on Saint Mary’s University campus in Halifax.

Biology professor Colleen Barber has been studying the species for around 20 years.

“A European Starling is a songbird and it’s an open-ended learner, so they learn songs throughout their life and not limited to a particular window to learn their songs,” Barber says.

The species is not native to Nova Scotia but has adapted to the Maritime environment. Each year Barber brings new students to this project. She has mentored around 70 to 80 students on this one alone.

“We go right up from the nest building. We look at egg weights and egg sequences. We look at hatching success, how the nestlings do, we measure them, we look at their condition, and we catch the adults as well and we measure them and band them so we can see which ones come back each year,” says Barber.

This group of students has been outside with these birds seven days a week since April.

“I want to be a professor one day, so this is giving me the good hands-on experience. I get to mentor other students and also work with a great mentor Dr. Colleen Barber,” says KC Collings, a Master of Science student.

Friday was the last day for hands-on learning because it was the last brood cycle, known as the last nesting cycle. Each student had their own area of focus and the group works together to collect the data.

“Birds actually sing to attract their mates. I’m looking into seeing if males with more complex songs, singing longer or larger repertoires end up getting more mates,” says Collings.

Freya Binney is a fifth-year biology student and she’s studying the nesting materials the birds use. She says she’s seen them use all sorts of anthropogenic materials, some items like ribbons.

“I’m looking at the nest material in the starling nest so after the chicks are done fledging I will take the nest and I will be going through it,” says Binney.

“I’m studying which birds choose to mate with whom. It’s very interesting because they do form pair bonds and live together in that box, however they also seek out bonds outside of that pair bond. Males mating with extra females, females mating with extra males and some birds will lay their eggs in other birds’ boxes,” says Janine Mombourquette, a Master of Applied Science student.

The students say this birds-eye view will benefit their future endeavours in the field.

“It made such a big difference in my life. I feel like I have grown a lot as a researcher and as a scientist and getting to work with Dr. Barber has just been so amazing. I’m so grateful to her for giving me these opportunities,” says Mombourquette.

“I think hands-on experience is really important. You learn a lot that you wouldn’t learn in books,” says Binney.

Barber says they are keeping an eye on the population numbers around here. She says this is one reason why the research is so important.

“Their populations, despite being urban thrivers, are declining not like in their native zones like where they are steeply crashing but here, they’re declining by about one per cent a year,” says Barber.

The team is also looking at the impacts a changing urban environment has on the species.

“We have already found that nestlings exposed to traffic noise are able to elevate the frequency of their call to unmask them so the parents can hear them. We are now looking at all the garbage incorporated into the nest,” says Barber.

The students will now take the data they have collected over the last few months and analyze it in the fall.

“It really helps them to see if they really do love research and a lot of my students go on to do graduate degrees and some have become profs. Others are medical doctors or veterinarians. This sort of learning experience can take you anywhere,” says Barber.

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