First reading
1. Description of starling's vocal talent
2. The reason of long-term research
3. Some relevant experiments
Second reading
1. The vocal talent of starling has been well known since antiquity. The starling not only possesses abundant repertoire of songs but also can mimic other sounds
2. the complexity is the reason of long- term study on starling songs. According to W&K, the mainly problem is that the starling vocalized too much, too often and in too great numbers
Experiment premises: all birds had been taken from the nest at early age and were hand raised. Normal ranking: live-tutored > taped-tutored> non tutored; another finding is that adult male starling still can learn, it may happen in the turnover period
• Startling : vocal talent
○ Rich repertoire
○ Ability to mimic
○ Difficulty to discribe
§ e.g. throaty, warbling…
§ Detailed study: delayed
□ Problem: vocalized too much
○ Comparison
§ Raised in different social conditions
□ Adult tutor
® Basic organization
® Imitation:69%
□ Tape-tutored
® Organization+some abnomalities
® Quantity:50%( live-tutored bird)
® Imitation: 18%, more improvisations
□ Total isolation
® Abnormal song, no organization
§ Adult male: acquire& produce new structure
□ 18 months ago
□ Important turnover: after a change of tutoring session