Nestbox floor area size and breeding performance: a study on the Common Starling

Abstract

A Common Starling Sturnus vulgaris population nesting in a Mokrice rural area, northwestern Croatia, was studied during the 2019 breeding season. I compared some breeding characteristics (laying date, clutch size, number of hatchlings and number of fledglings) of first clutches of the Common Starling for different nestbox sizes. There was no any statistically significant difference found between parameters for “normal nestboxes” with a floor area of 256 cm² and “small nestboxes” with a floor area of 121 cm² (all comparisons with p > 0.05). My results are aligned with those papers that have illustrated no connection between breeding performance parameters and nestbox size in secondary hole-nesting passerines.