Starlings: I'll sing it my way and ours.

Starlings have a reputation as socializers. They live in colonies, to which the males return every day, and visit other colonies frequently. The birds also have a sizable repertoire of warbles and whistles.

For example, each male has his own special song. But he also sings songs that other members of his group sing. Females sing too, but researchers know less about their habits, explains Marten Hausberger and her colleagues at the University of Rennes I in Rennes Cedex, France.

Which tunes the birds sing depends on whom they are hanging out with, the team reports in the September Journal of Comparative Psychology.

The scientists monitored the singing habits of nine female and six male starlings for 13 months. They recorded the birds singing alone, with a mate, or with others of the same sex.

Song sharing increased over time among pairs of females housed together. Males, which often sing simultaneously, also shared more songs when living together, and their individual tunes grew more similar over time.

Even when paired, males and females rarely shared songs, Hausberger and her colleagues report.

Previous studies have suggested that birds change their tunes less often if their social environment remains stable. That finding prompted the French team to investigate the effect of social interactions on birds' song selection.