The European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris, is a common bird found across the globe, yet its daily activities reveal a complex level of intelligence. These highly social birds have developed cognitive abilities that rival some of the most studied avian species. Their mental capacity is demonstrated through sophisticated communication, collective motion, and advanced navigational skills, showing that avian intelligence is not limited to species like parrots and corvids.
Mastery of Vocal Learning and Mimicry
Vocal learning, the ability to acquire new sounds through imitation, is a hallmark of complex cognition. European Starlings are advanced avian vocal learners, possessing a large and flexible repertoire of calls, whistles, and songs. This capacity is facilitated by their intricate syrinx, which allows them to produce a wide array of high-fidelity sounds and incorporate foreign elements into their complex song sequences.
Starlings are well-known for their impressive ability to mimic the calls of up to 20 different bird species, integrating these imitations into courtship displays. Their mimicry extends beyond other birds, often including mechanical noises from their environment, such as car alarms or telephone rings. They have been documented to accurately reproduce human speech patterns and the distinct sounds of digital assistants, demonstrating remarkable auditory memory and motor control. Studies show a strong correlation between complex vocal learning ability and overall problem-solving skills.
Complex Social Coordination in Murmurations
The starling murmuration, a massive, swirling cloud of thousands of birds moving in perfect synchrony, demonstrates extraordinary social intelligence. This collective aerial ballet operates without a leader, relying instead on a decentralized system of local interactions. The complex, fluid patterns emerge from a simple behavioral rule: each starling coordinates its movement with a fixed number of its nearest neighbors.
Research determined this number to be approximately seven neighbors, regardless of the flock’s density. This reliance on topological distance allows changes in direction to propagate through the entire flock nearly instantaneously. This self-organized movement creates a complex, coherent whole. This rapid, coordinated action is an effective anti-predator adaptation, as the constantly changing shape of the murmuration makes it difficult for a raptor to single out an individual target.
Experimental Evidence of Cognitive Problem Solving
Beyond their social feats, individual starlings exhibit measurable cognitive abilities in controlled experiments involving non-social problem-solving tasks. Studies challenge the birds with novel puzzles to access a food reward. These tasks require flexible thinking and a grasp of cause-and-effect relationships, placing starlings among the most adept problem-solvers in the songbird family.
In experiments, starlings faced treats hidden behind barriers requiring multi-step solutions, such as removing a lid, piercing foil, or pulling a string. Their speed and success rate confirmed their capacity for innovative foraging strategies. Furthermore, they demonstrate a capacity for social learning through observation. Starlings that watched a conspecific manipulate an object were significantly more likely to adopt the same technique than naive birds.
Memory, Navigation, and Spatial Recall
The annual migration of the European Starling showcases a sophisticated system of memory and navigation that differs significantly between age groups. Juvenile starlings utilize an innate “vector navigation” strategy, flying a predetermined direction and distance based on a simple clock-and-compass mechanism. If displaced from their normal route, these young birds continue on their inherited compass bearing.
In contrast, adult starlings display a more complex, experience-based navigational ability. When displaced, older birds correct their trajectory and adjust their flight path to reach their familiar wintering grounds, indicating they developed a true “map sense” based on prior migratory experience. This map sense involves associative learning and the ability to integrate multiple environmental cues, such as the position of the sun, which they track using an internal time-compensated sun compass. This combination of innate direction-finding and learned spatial mapping allows starlings to successfully navigate vast distances with high precision.