OTTENS G, DE JONG A & KWAKERNAAK, A (2015) Juvenile Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris helps its parents feeding young of the second brood. LIMOSA 88 (4): 192-194.

This short note describes the behaviour of a juvenile Common Starling from a first brood, helping its parents with feeding nestlings of the second brood. The feeding activities of the juvenile, which was colour-ringed and therefore individually recognisable, were recorded by a small camera in the nestbox. On 15, 18, 19 en 27 June 2015, the juvenile was recorded at the nest where it was raised. On the 15^th it was feeding all four nestlings of the second brood. On the 18th visual observations around the nestbox confirmed that the juvenile collected food around the nest and brought the food to the nestbox. The bird was also seen begging near the nest. Once fed by its parents it passed some food to the nestlings. It also took nesting material into the nestbox and helped maintain the nest.
This specific behaviour can be classified as immature intraspecific help, a form of cooperative breeding. In literature, we found only one possible example of a juvenile Common Starling passing given food to nestlings of a second brood. As far as we know, help-at-the-nest by a juvenile, both collecting food for and feeding a second brood, has never been described for this species.

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