title: Sexing Adult Pale-Winged Starlings Using Morphometric and Discriminant Function Analysis.
abstract: Accurate sexing of birds is vital for behavioral studies but can be a real problem in the field, especially for monomorphic species. Our goal here was to characterize the morphology of male and female monomorphic pale-winged starlings (Onychognathus nabouroup), a South African sturnid whose plumage is sexually monomorphic. Morphological measurements of genetically sexed animals indicated that males were statistically larger than females for five measurements: Mass, tail length, tarsus length and wing length. By using a Discriminant Function Analysis based on the measurements taken by one ringer, we were able to predict correctly the sex of 81.10% of the birds of data collected in the field and 77.9% of museum skins independently of year of capture and ringer. The model developed here should be useful for further field studies of this species.
authors.affiliation: Université de Rennes 1, UMR CNRS 6552 Ethologie Animale et Humaine, Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Henry
authors.affiliation: Université de Rennes 1, UMR CNRS 6552 Ethologie Animale et Humaine, Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Véronique
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Biquand
authors.affiliation: Department of Zoology & Entomology, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa.
authors.forename: Adrian J F K
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Craig
authors.affiliation: CNRS, Université de Rennes 1, UMR 6552 Ethologie Animale et Humaine, Rennes, France.
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hausberger
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D001837:Body Weights and Measures; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D046749:Starlings / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology