Starlings are probably one of the noisiest and most gregarious garden birds. The Starling's plumage is mainly blackish with buff edged wing feathers. In winter it has white speckles above and below, the sexes are alike but the male has fewer speckles on the rump and wings. The speckles go in the summer and the plumage becomes green and purple.
The colour of the base of its yellow beak can identify the sexes in the summer: pink for females, blue for males. The bills are dark grey-brown in the winter. Young Starlings have grey-brown plumage with white speckles on the under parts and light cream coloured throat, but moult completely in the autumn to the spotty adult colour, and dark greyish beak. In flight, Starlings have pointed, triangular wings. The Rose Coloured Starling is a common vagrant from eastern Europe In the summer, the adults have black and pink plumage with the breast, belly and back being pink. Many of these visitors are juveniles and can be mistaken for common juvenile Starlings, with the exception that the bill is yellowish, the legs are pale pink, and the plumage is a pale grey-brown with darker wings.
Starlings are good at mimicry, and will copy things such as telephones and car alarms, and other birds. Male Starlings can be heard singing throughout the year except when they are moulting in mid to late Summer.
Feeding
Starlings feed on: insects, worms, snails, berries, fruit, scraps, suet. They only feed invertebrates to their young. The beak is used to probe the ground and is used to open part of the ground and reach any food that is buried. They will feed alongside Lapwings in wetland areas, feeding on the food that the Lapwings have disturbed.
Breeding
The male builds a nest from grass in a hole in a wall, tree or building, the female lines it with feathers, wool and moss. This is the most common cause of complaint, they build nests in eaves & lofts which can cause disturbance, a build up of droppings & insect parasites. The male may decorate the nest with leaves and petals in order to improve his chances of attracting a female. The eggs are pale light blue & about 30 mm by 21 mm. Both sexes take turns incubating & both feed the young. The female have been known to remove an egg from a neighbouring Starlings' nests and lay one of her own in its place so as to give her offspring a better chance of surviving. The young usually leave by the end of May. In the winter, the starlings roost at night either in the city centre or in woodlands. When they roost on mass in town areas the droppings & noise can be a serious problem. Between 9.00 AM and 10.00 AM, flocks of starlings will visit suburban gardens looking for food, and then again just before dark, when they are usually also seen bathing. These numbers peak in the winter when migrants (up to 30 million birds from These numbers peak in the winter when migrants (up to 30 million birds from northern Europe) add to the numbers. The migrant birds have duller bills. Starling populations have declined seriously (by over 70%) in recent times and they have been taken off the list of birds that can be culled. There are several possible causes of this decline: changes in farming practices, changes in grassland management, fewer nesting sites in urban areas owing to household improvements and poorer survival rates among young birds. This may not be a bad thing as it has to be remembered that other species of birds are on the increase: Red Kites, Buzzards, Ketrels etc.
