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Winter movements andhabitat use of Starlings inNorfolkRonald W. Summers a & Sara J. Cross aa Worplesdon Laboratory , Ministry ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Food , Tangier Place,Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey, U.K.Published online: 11 Apr 2011.

To cite this article: Ronald W. Summers & Sara J. Cross (1987) Wintermovements and habitat use of Starlings in Norfolk, Ringing & Migration, 8:1,11-18, DOI: 10.1080/03078698.1987.9673896

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03078698.1987.9673896

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HABITAT USE BY STARLINGS 11

Ringing & Migration 8: 11-18, June 1987

Winter movements and habitat use of Starlings inNorfolkRonald W. Summers and Sara J. Cross

Summers, R. W. & Cross, S. J. 1987. Winter movements and habitat use of Starlingsin Norfolk. Ring. & Migr. 8: 11-18.Four hundred and fifty two Starlings were wing-tagged at a pig farm in Norfolk andthe 148 subsequent sightings within the same winter showed that these birds used alarge number of other feeding sites throughout East Anglia and neighbouringcounties. First-year birds tended to travel to a greater number and more distantfeeding sites (relative to the place of marking) than adults. Throughout the winter,most Starlings were associated with farm-yards where they fed on food put out forfarm livestock. These results contrasted with a study in Hampshire where differentpatterns of movements and habitat use were recorded, possibly due to differences inthe distribution and availability of food.

R. W. Summers & S. J. Cross, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,Worplesdon Laboratory, Tangier Place, Worplesdon, Guildford, Surrey, U.K.Received 1 September 1986; accepted I October 1986

INTRODUCTIONThe study of the movement of Starlings

Sturnus vulgaris in winter between feedingsites, and between feeding and roosting sites,has attracted the attention of severalauthors, both from academic and appliedinterests. Early observations led tocontradictory conclusions for, while Wynne-Edwards (1929) stated that "there issufficient evidence that the same Starlingsreturn day after day to the same feedinggrounds", Brown (1946) concluded that "itwould appear that all the Starlings do notvisit the same localities throughout thewinter; some may do so, but others appear tobe more nomadic and change their feedinggrounds from time to time". There wascircumstantial evidence to support Brown'sconclusion, because Boyd (1932) found a lowretrap rate amongst birds ringed at onefeeding site, suggesting that they had goneelsewhere. However, trap-shyness wouldhave given a similar result. In a later study,Fankhauser (1966) ringed birds at a winterroost in Pennsylvania and eight wererecovered during winter less than 80 kmfrom the roost suggesting fidelity to a givenwinter area.

The development of small radio-transmitters (Kolz & Corner 1975) permitted

more detailed studies of movements. Bray etal. (1975) tagged eight birds and found thatmost returned to the same general feedingarea each day though the "centre of activity"(Hayne 1949) of their feeding area moved onaverage by 4.8 km from one day to the next,whereas the average distance from thefeeding area to the roost site was 18 km.Gough & Beyer (1980) found that radio-marked birds visited three to four farms perday. Heisterberg et al. (1984) found thatsome Starlings also changed roosts duringwinter, so the fidelity to a feeding site may infact be stronger than the fidelity to the roost(Morrison & Caccamise 1985).

One of the disadvantages of using radio-transmitters is that only a few birds can betracked simultaneously. Coloured wing-tags(Feare 1978) allow a greater number of birdsto be studied. Feare (1980), using thistechnique, found from 288 marked birds,mainly adults, in a population at a cattlefarm in Hampshire, England, that there wasvery little movement to other feeding sites.Most subsequent sightings were within 400m of the marking site, and the most distantrecord was close to the roost, 10 km away.Not only did birds return each day to thefarm, but individuals tended to use the samefeeding sites on the farm and the same

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12 RINGING AND MIGRATION

daytime roost perches. In contrast. Summerset al. (1984) found that Starlings, trappedand wing-tagged at one feeding site inNorfolk, used at least 25 other feedinglocalities during the winter, mostly within 10km of where they were marked. The mostdistant sighting was 32 km away and themain roost was 8 km away from the markingsite.

Given the conflicting conclusions drawnfrom the various studies, this study set out toinvestigate the possible factors which maylead to the greater dispersal of Starlings inNorfolk. The results are compared withthose in the Hampshire study (Feare 1980)since similar methods were used in this studyand both are situated in the southern half ofEngland. This study was designed to answertwo questions relating to the greater extentof Starling movement.in Norfolk:-

1. Do different age groups have differentpatterns of movement?

2. Does the availability and use of feedingareas differ between the two counties?

METHODSMovements within the study area

The study was carried out during the winter(October to March) 1983-84. Starlings werecaptured in Chardonneret traps or by a clap-net(Davis 1981) at a pig farm at Shingham,Gooderstone in Norfolk (Fig. 1). They were aged"first-year" or "adult" and sexed according toplumage characteristics and colour of the iris(Kessel 1951), and marked with Saflag plasticwing-tags (Feare 1978); different colours wereused for the two age classes. Farmers at 87 otherpig farms within 20 km of Shingham wereinformed of the marking scheme and asked toreport sightings. Other farmers were notifiedthrough a farming journal. Local bird clubs wereinformed directly and there were announcementsabout the investigation on radio and in localnewspapers. We searched for marked Starlingsourselves along a 55 km road transect aroundShingham at intervals of about two weeksthroughout the winter (Fig. I). A "sighting" refersto the observation of a marked bird on the transectduring our regular surveys (these accounted for51% of the sightings) and those reported by thepublic. Repeat sightings were not included unlesstwo "weeks apart. Sightings made one hour afterdawn and one hour before dusk were excluded asthey may have referred to birds moving from or tothe roost.

Habitat utilisationThe number of Starlings in the following

habitat categories on the transect was noted;village, pig-farm, duck-farm, cattle-farm andfields of stubble, plough, winter-cereal, grass, oil-seed rape and sugar-beet. The village habitatcomprised gardens, small allotments and playingfields. The pig, duck and cattle-farm categoriescomprised only the area where the animals werekept (paddocks, feedlots, yards and buildings).The ducks and some pigs were kept in largepaddocks and food provided in open troughs(extensive units). Other pigs and cattle werehoused in yards and large barns (intensive units).

Birds in flocks of less than 100 individuals werecounted individually, whilst the numbers in flocksof over 100 birds were estimated to the nearest 50birds. All birds were counted on the stock farms,but in arable fields Starlings were counted onlywithin 200 m of the road, and only within 50 m ofthe road through villages. These represented thedistance over which Starlings could be readily seenand counted. The length of each habitat along thetransect was determined from 1:50,000 maps.Changes in habitat associated with farmmanagement, e.g. due to ploughing, sowing, etc.were noted during each survey. Indices of selectionfor different habitats were determined from theequation

r ( l - p )Q = , where r is the

p ( l - r )proportion of Starlings in a given habitat and p isthe proportion of that habitat on the transect(Jacobs 1974).

RESULTSMovements from Shingham

A total of 452 Starlings (98 adult males, 41adult females, 161 first-year males and 152first-year females) were marked at Shinghamduring the winter; about half (269) of thesewere tagged during October 1983. First-yearbirds outnumbered adults and malesoutnumbered females in the trapped sample,a sex bias which appears typical forwintering populations of Starlings (Davis1959, Thompson & Coutlee 1963, Coulson1960, (Feare 1980).

The distribution of the sightings of taggedbirds away from Shingham within the samewinter is shown in Fig. 1. The majority of thesightings were made close to the trappingsite, and between the trapping site and theroosts used during the winter (Fig. 1). Roostsat Setchey and Welney were used by birds

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HABITAT USE BY STARLINGS 13

• B««stonNotts.

Peterborough

Ely

Cambridge

Figure 1. The dispersion of sightings of Starlings away from the marking site (star) at Shingham. Circlesand triangles refer to first-year and adult birds respectively. Number by symbols refer to number of

sightings. Roosts are denoted by white stars andthe dashed line the transect route.

which fed at Shingham, as shown by therelocation of radio-tagged birds in theseroosts. The roost at Setchey was in hawthornCrataegus monogyna scrub and was usedfrom October until 10 November when it wasabandoned. The roost at Welney was in anosier Salix sp. bed and was in use whenlocated in early December and remained inuse until mid-March when migrant birdsdeparted for Continental Europe. Clearly,many Starlings used a variety of alternativesites within the foraging range of the roosts.A few Starlings evidently joined otherroosts, because birds marked at Shinghamwere later seen in Norwich (45 km away),Great Yarmouth (75 km), south ofCambridge (55 km) and in Nottinghamshire(120 km) (Fig. 1) and it is unlikely that thesebirds would have continued to use the roostsites at Setchey or Welney.

The number of sightings of adults,expressed as a percentage of the number ofadults marked (29.5%) was not significantlydifferent from the number of sightings offirst-year birds, expressed as a percentage ofthe numbers of first-years marked (34.2%)(X2 = 0.8, n.s.). This indicates that adultsand first-years were equally likely to havebeen observed.

A comparison between the distance of"ightjngs of first-year and adult birds fromShingham shows that first-year birds tendedto move further from the site at which theywere initially marked than did adults (Fig. 2)(Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test[Siegel 1956] D = 0.355, n = 107,41; p<0.005).

Habitat useThe countryside of Norfolk is dominated

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14 RINGING AND MIGRATION

100 i

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>23

E3

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5 0 -

20 40 60 80 100Distance from Shingham (km)

120

Figure 2. Distance of movement of first-year (solid line, n = 107) and adult (dashed line, n = 41) Starlingsfrom Shingham where they were marked, shown by the distibution of sightings of tagged birds. All

records were made between October 1983 and March 1984.

by arable farming. The seasonal pattern ofchange of habitats on the transect is shown inFig. 3. The area of sugar-beet declined as itwas harvested, and stubble disappeared as itwas ploughed. There was also a slightdecrease in the amount of grass since some ofthis too was ploughed. Fields of winter cerealand oil-seed rape were established in earlywinter and their areas then remainedconstant through the winter. During thestudy, one extensive pig farm wasdiscontinued and the land ploughed, andsome duck farms were discontinued justbefore Christmas.

The changes in habitat brought about byfarming practices had no major effect on thedistribution of Starlings, mainly because thearable fields were rarely used by them (Fig.4). On average, 80% (range 63-97%) of theStarlings seen on the transect occurred atpig, duck and cattle farms and the birds

positively selected these areas throughoutthe winter (Table 1). The village habitatrepresented a mixture of food sourcesranging from invertebrates on lawns andplaying fields, to household scraps on birdtables, and this habitat was also positivelyselected (Table 1). When snow covered theground on 26 January, no birds were seen onarable fields and indices of selection werehigher at this time on duck farms and villagesthan at any other time, though at their lowestfor cattle farms (Table 1). However, the totalnumber of Starlings seen on farms andvillages on this day (1725) was within the95% confidence limits of the number ofStarlings counted on farms and villages onother days (876-1918), showing that therewas no significant increase in the populationsize using these habitats. Grassland becamean important habitat in the spring (Table 1)and this probably reflects a change towards

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HABITAT USE BY STARLINGS 15

TABLE I. Indices of selection by Starlings for different habitats in west Norfolk.Values over one indicate positive selection.

Dales

Habitat

StubblePloughWinter cerealGrassOil seed rapeSugar beetVillagePig farmDuck farmCattle farm

31 Oct

0.000.000.050.380.000.001.713.63

12.52229.99

14 Nov

0.000.010.070.500.000.012.295.25

38.7134.08

5 Dec

0.000.010.000.000.000.151.31

15.8219.3244.46

19 Dec

0.570.010.000.350.770.900.37

12.738.06

67.11

10 Jan

0.210.470.000.190.000.006.35

10.419.38

52.31

26 Jan

0.000.000.000.000.000.006.35

12.6250.659.93

20 Feb

0.000.170.001.120.700.002.378.81

22.3358.19

8 Mar

0.000.460.001.160.000.003.171.87

47.0386.75

22 Mar

0.000.000.001.020.000.005.908.890.00

213.37

100

31 14 5 19 10 26 20 3 22Oct Nov Dec Dec Jan Jan Feb Mar Mar

Other farmsPig farmsVillagesOil-seed rapeSugar beetGrass

Winter cerealPloughStubble

DateFigure 3. The percentage area of each habitat on the transect on different dates through the winter.

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16 RINGING AND MIGRATION

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Figure 4. The percentage of Starlings present in different habitats on the transect on different datesthrough the winter. Sample sizes are given at the top of each histogram.

invertebrate foods which are perhapsbecoming more available or profitable(Dunnet 1955), and which are moreimportant in terms of the changing nutrientrequirements of the birds (Al-Joborae 1979).

DISCUSSIONThe results from the present study confirm

the pattern previously described for Norfolkby Summers et al. (1984); that Starlings mayrange widely during winter, selecting farmsand villages as feeding sites within theforaging range of their roost, and evenchanging to other roosting groups. Thiscontrasts with the pattern described forStarlings in Hampshire where movements to

other feeding sites were rare (Feare 1380).There are several possible reasons for thedifferent patterns in these two areas.

First, the age structure of the populationwhich fed at Shingham was in favour of first-year birds (c 70% of the marked population)which were found to range further thanadults. In contrast, a greater proportion ofadults were marked in the Hampshire study,so the difference in the results of the twostudies could be partly attributed to agerelated differences in movement. However,even the adults in the Norfolk study travelledto several other sites and up to 50 km fromwhere they were marked, so the age relateddifference cannot wholly account for the

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HABITAT USE BY STARLINGS 17

differences between the two studies.The distance between the feeding sites and

the roost could have affected the patterns ofsightings of tagged birds. In the presentstudy the birds which fed at Shinghamtravelled 29 km to one roost during most ofthe winter. This may have led to some longdistance sightings that would not have beenobtained if the roost was closer to Shingham.In the Hampshire study the roost was only 10km from the farm where the Starlings weremarked. Therefore, the differences betweenthe results in the two studies may partly bedue to the relative positions of the feeding(marking) site and roost. Again, this cannotwholly account for the difference since manyof the movements in Norfolk were unrelatedto movements to and from the roost; e.g.some were in the opposite direction to theroost (Fig.l).

The data on habitat use in Norfolk showsthe dependence that Starlings have on manto obtain food, either feeding where food isput out for farm animlas, or in villages. Inthis respect the situation was different fromthe study in Hampshire where most (c. 70%)of the birds in the study area foraged on largegrass pastures while the rest fed at a cattlefeedlot. However, they relied more on cereal-based cattle food at feedlots when grasslandinvertebrates become less available in verycold weather. In contrast, there iscomparatively less grassland in Norfolk(Fig. ̂ 3) and because the Starlings are sodependent on farm-yards for food, there waslittle change in their feeding habitats whenthe weather became severe and snow coveredthe ground. In Norfolk, food was notcontinually available at farm-yards becausemost livestock were fed only in the morning(Summers et al. 1984), whereas the cattle atthe Hampshire feedlot were fed ad libitum,so that food was available to the Starlingsthroughout the day. Thus, given thetemporary availability of food at the Norfolkfarms, and the fact that alternative feedingpatches (usually other farms) were scattered,the birds were forced to travel further forfood than the Hampshire birds which had a

predictable food supply as well as anabundance of alternative feeding habitatsnearby (grass fields) (Feare 1981).

To conclude, in studies of the dispersal ofbirds, interpretation of the results shouldtake into account the dispersion andpredictability of food supplies, andavailability of roost sites. Otherwise,apparently conflicting results may beobtained from studies on the same species indifferent localities.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTWe thank Mr. D. Hale at Shingham for

allowing the study to be carried out on his farm.

REFERENCESAL-JOBORAE, F. F. 1979. The influence of diet on the gut

morphology of the starling (Sturnus vulgaris) L. 1758. D.Phil.thesis. University of Oxford.

BOYD, A. W. 1932. A great Cheshire starling roost in 1930. NorthWestern Naturalist 7: 10-18.

BRAY, O. E., LARSEN, K. H. & MOTT, D. F. 1975. Wintermovements and activities of radio-tagged starlings. Journal ofWildlife Management 39: 795-801.

BROWN, F. J. 1946. A Cheshire starling roost. 1944-5. Journal ofAnimal Ecology 15: 75-81.

COULSON, J. C. I960. A study of the mortality of the starlingbased on ringing recoveries. Journal of Animal Ecology29: 251-271.

DAVIS, D. E. 1959. The sexandage structure of roosting starlings.Ecology 40: 136-139.

DAVIS, P. G. 1981. Trapping Methods for Bird Ringers. BritishTrust for Ornithology, Tring.

DUNNET, G. M. 1955. The breeding of the starling Sturnusvulgaris in relation to its food supply. Ibis 97: 619-662.

FANKHAUSER, D. P. 1966. Movements of starlings in relationto a roost near Hanover, Pennsylvania. Bird-Banding 37: 200-203.

FEARE, C. J. 1978. A wing tag for starlings. EPPO Publications,Series B. No. 84: 51-54.

FEARE, C. J. 1980. Local movements of starlings in winter.Proceedings XVIII International Ornithological Congress 2:1331-1336.

FEARE, C. J. 1981. The relevance of "natural" habitats tostarling damage. Pests, Pathogens and Vegetation (Ed. by J. M.Thresh), pp. 393-400.

GOUGH, P. M. & BEYER, J. W. 1980. Study of the relationshipbetween birds and TGE(transmissibIe gastro-enteritis) disease ofswine. Research report phase two of Contract Number 14-16-0009-78-039. US Fish and Wildlife Service. October 1, 1979-September 30, 1980.

HAYNE, D. W. 1949. Calculation of size of home range. Journal ofMammalogy 30: 1-18.

HEISTERBERG, J. F., KNITTLE, C. E., BRAY, O.E. MOTT, D.F. & BESSER, J. F. 1984. Movements of radio-instrumentedblackbirds and European starlings among winter roosts.Journal of Wildlife Management 48: 203-209.

JACOBS, J. 1974. Quantitative measurement of food selection. Amodification of the forage ratio and Ivlev's Electivity Index.Oecologia (Berl.) 14: 413-417.

KESSEL, B. 1951. Criteria for sexing and ageing Europeanstarlings (Sturnus vulgaris). Bird Banding 22: 16-23.

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MORRISON, D. W. & CACCAMISE, D. F. 1985. Ephemeralroosts and stable patches? A radiotelemetry study ofcommunally roosting starlings. Auk 102: 793-804.

SIEGEL, S. 1956. Nonparametric Statistics for the BehavioralSciences. McGraw-Hill. Tokyo.

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SUMMERS, R. W., PRITCHARD, G. C. & BROOKES, H. B. L.1984. The possible role of starlings in the spread of T.G.E.in pigs. Proceedings of the 9th Bird Control Seminar. BowlingGreen. Ohio. pp. 301-306.

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WYNNE-EDWARDS, V. C. 1929. The behaviour of starlings inwinter. An investigation of the diurnal movements and socialroosting-habit. British Birds 23: 138-153 & 170-180.

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