European Starling

 

   
Main Menu
Backyard Birdscape Feathered Friends
Yard Critters
Photo Gallery Back Yard Habitat
The Basic Bird
Backyard Banter
Services
Sitemap
Contact
Company Bio

 
   

 

   
 
   


 
   

European Starling - (Sturnus vulgaris)

 

European StarlingMarch 20,2009 - A single European starling arrived on this day.  We saw him awkwardly perched on a suet feeder. He's the last of the official black birds to arrive this spring.  Normally we see him in the yard with robins looking for interesting food stuff there. I'm assuming he needed some quick, high energy food- thus the shaky pose on the small suet cage.  As days passed he found larger suet feeders.

 

 

My first sighting of these astonishing looking birds was at our previous home.  I looked out of the back window and saw what must have been hundreds of shiny black birds with diamond like sparkles all over them.  They were pecking the lawn for grass and weed seeds.  Never having seen these birds before, they seemed like other-world creatures.  Funny that I never thought to research them at the time. While I didn't have the extensive bird library I have now, I did have the internet.

 

European Starling

 

When I saw them in our new backyard, I quickly grabbed the camera for the pictures and then selected one of my favorite bird books (the one divided by color for easy look up).  Of course, the European Starling was easy to find with the black birds.

 

I read that they gather in the hundreds in autumn and although not really migrators, they will travel around together for food.  The birds I saw in my old backyard never appeared again. My new starlings stayed here for months before they too moved on.

 

 

 

    European Starling    


Size:                       

Length: 8.5 in      Weight: 2.9 oz          Wingspan: 14-16 in

ID:       

Male: During spring and summer feathers  are overall glossy black with iridescent metallic sheen of blues, greens and purples and bill is yellow; feathers are tipped with white in fall and winter and the long, pointy bill is gray;  bill also has a blue-gray base; orange feet anisodactylous (three toes point forward and one toe points backward) 
Female: Same as male except base of bill is pink 
Juvenile: Similar to adult but is gray-brown with a streaked chest and brown bill                                   

Habitat:

Grasslands, water areas and open forest land

Diet:

Insects, berries and seeds; forages on the ground and in the open; powerful muscles for opening the bill also enables the insertion of its bill in vegetation and ground for prying open to find food; will come to feeders for seeds, bread, peanut butter and suet

Family Behavior:

Bold and aggressive; usually seen in large flocks after mating season

Social Activities:

Mating Habits:  Monogamous;  can form loose colonies; some males polygynous; 2 broods per year
Nests: Female and male line nest with grass and feathers; will often displace other cavity-nesting birds
Eggs:  4-6 plain, pale bluish or greenish white with slight gloss; mostly female incubates 12-14 days
Nestlings: Born altricial (helpless, naked, eyes closed) and stay in nest 18-21 days; fed by both parents

Range:

Continental US and most of Canada; only northern birds migrate

Vocalization:           

Variety of trilling melodies and twitters; imitates songs of other birds
Lifespan: Up to 17 years

 
   

 
   

More Info