Move Over Starling ...

I happened to be pouring over the Big Garden Birdwatch weekend results and statistics earlier this week, and I was saddened to learn that Starlings had become a species of most concern.

It’s another one of the birds that comes in as a bit of an underdog, and as you now know, this blog does like to shout for the underdog! I know some people see them as a bit of a pest, chasing the other birds off their feeders and stopping the smaller birds getting food. With a little bit of feeder management you can let both Starlings and your other birds get along quite nicely … well as nicely as you can get with Starlings. I always run some bird seed along the fence edges (if you have any), they are too small for the Starlings to perch on, and whilst they flap about the other feeders, the smaller birds can relocate and still get food.

I don’t know what the collective noun is for Starlings but it really ought to be a squabble! It’s like having a playground of boisterous children at times. It’s all yellow bills and wings, a bit like all elbows and knees … and the noise! You really do feeling like shouting out into the garden; “If you don’t behave I am taking your food away…”

But they never do behave really … they are that naughty child you can’t really tell off! They are birds full of character, and it is such a shame to see their numbers declining so dramatically. Although they are the second most sighted bird in British gardens, the average number seen per garden has dropped to just three. When you compare that to the heady heights of 1979, when there were on average fifteen per garden, you can see how dramatic the decline has been. It makes me wonder if we have another House Sparrow situation on our hands here.

From a personal perspective my garden plays host to anything from half a dozen to a dozen Starlings at any one time. As soon as I put a new fat cake out, they soon discover it and that’s it, although they always lose out to the Great Spotted Woodpecker... a few well-placed stabs with that beak usually restores the pecking order at the feeder!

The Starlings here had a successful breeding season last year as far as I could tell. My garden was packed full of the dusty brown fledglings, all wanting more of my fat cake and suet balls that were on offer. It was great watching the hard working parents trying to keep up with the needy young ones sat on the fence.

The breeding season is in full swing for them again. I have been watching them collect nesting material this week, and I even went out to give them a helping hand, by chopping up some of the palm tree leaf strands that were too big for them to carry … the things I do for nature eh! I suspect there is one mother sat on eggs or chicks already, as one of the Starlings kept flying off with beaks full of food.

Starlings are wonderful birds, have a close look at them, they have the most wonderfully coloured plumage all year around; whether it is the white speckles in winter or that oily iridescence in the summer. Most people don’t realise they are wonderful mimics, and can imitate everyday sounds as well as other bird calls. I have heard one in my garden making the noise of a phone ring, and I have heard that the Starlings that roost at Leigh Delamare Service Station in the M4 have started mimicking lorry reversing sirens.

Help the Starling, look on them differently. They are not a nuisance bird at all, but a bird that needs us to look out for it right now. Whilst the conservationists try to work out why the world wide decline is happening, let them have their place at your bird table, you may be helping your local population in more ways than you can imagine!