They usually feed within 2 km of the roost, but can travel up to 80 km in areas of lower food availability. During autumn and winter, they form larger flocks, leave the roost earlier, travel greater distances and are less tied to particular feeding sites. During these seasons, short-term movements may centre on feeding areas rather than roosting or nesting locations.
Starlings require protein to live and breed with invertebrates comprising over half their daily food intake. They also consume fruit, berries, vegetables, meat and food scraps, and seeds of cultivated grains.
Starlings are seasonal breeders with a peak of breeding activity in August-September. They form pairs and nest in tree hollows, holes in the ground and gaps or crevices in cliffs, shrubs, tree stumps, fence posts and eaves and under rooves of buildings. Starlings produce broods a year with an average of eggs with each brood.
The incubation period is 12 days and the young take 14 days to fledge. Starlings can cause significant damage to horticultural industries, particularly cherries, grapes, blueberries, olives, stone fruits, apples, pears and a range of vegetable crops. They will also damage drying fruit and, occasionally, birds will remove fruit from drying racks. Cereal crops are susceptible when grain is freshly sown and during ripening.
Origin: Native of Eurasia and North Africa. Introduction to U. From this unusual beginning, the European Starling gradually spread throughout the United States and had an estimated population of million birds in There was every reason to believe that the birds would die—it was bitterly cold and sleeting, and attempts with other species had led to dead birds.
But the tiny flock found shelter beneath the eaves of the American Museum of Natural History, just to the west of the park, and they survived the winter. And then they began to breed, and spread, and breed some more. It seems that the starlings some special characteristics that gave them an advantage over other bird species, Marche writes:.
The protractor muscles of their beaks allow them to pry and to probe better than other birds. They can open their bills after pushing them into the soil, which allows them to forage for invertebrates easily and in drier areas. Its binocular vision combined with its open-bill probing ability means that starlings can find insects in colder climates better than other birds, which means that starlings do not have to migrate to warmer climates in winter, which means that they can take the best nesting holes during the breeding season.
Starlings will bully other birds, kicking bluebirds, flickers and woodpeckers out of their nests. Starlings look similar to blackbirds and have a short, square tail with a slender, yellow beak. Their wings are pointed and triangular. The plumage of a European starling is a glossy black with green, purple, blue or bronze iridescence.
In the fall, starlings may have a spotty appearance after molting, but the spots on their wing tips wear away by spring. Male and females look similar however, the female may have a slightly duller appearance.
Additionally, in the breeding season the lower mandible of the beak in males will appear blue-gray and pinkish in females. Starlings are noisy birds making many clicks, whistles, rattles, squeaks, and sounds mimicking those from their environment or songs from other birds. To prevent further spread of European starlings, eggs and nests can be destroyed before the nestlings are able to fledge.
Sticky polybutene materials may also be placed in roosting sites to deter birds from landing in a specific area.
The most common for removing already established flocks of starlings from an area, is to frighten or harass the birds using propane exploders, pyrotechnics, hawk kites, and ultrasonic sounds. However, using these harassing techniques for control produces only temporary results, as the birds may come back once the control methods are stopped or once they are no longer frightened by them.
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