I live in Hythe on the Kent coast and have been feeding the birds for many years. The starling population has dwindled quite considerably over the years but they usually produce at least 2 broods a year and sometimes, in good years, they will produce 3. But this year for some reason there only seems to have been a single brood and I wondered if this had happened in other areas and if anybody had any ideas why it had happened this year?
Barb Howland
I have noticed in the coutry side there is a lack of starlings this year but our garden and our neigbours have been full of them I live in crewe Cheshire.
John
I live on the south coast and we have had loads of starlings this year. I have noticed that they seem to only have had one brood this year though.
I love birds I hate cats
I live in Surrey and have had up to 10 starlings at my feeders, more than previous years, but have seen no young.
Hope someone can enlighten us as to why there is, or appears to be, a brreding problem
Colin Carr
Hello
I have restarted feeding birds this year after the cold 08/09 winter we had and will now continue as I have such a variety of birds. Feed on three sites (home and two seperate fields) but I am very sad to see that I dont have a single starling visit any of the sites.
Hi Barbara
I live in south Bucks and have, permanently, anywhere between 24 and 36 starlings which visit my feeders daily. Sometimes my yard (where my feeders are) bears a marked resemblance to a scene from Hitchcock's "The Birds".
Squirrel
The necessity of bird-watching is a really good reason for avoiding all forms of housework.
The dust will still be there tomorrow - the birds may not be!
Hello.
Where I live (near Glasgow), there is quite a few local starlings. Although we don't get the huge winter roosting displays. I find whenever I put out the bird food in the morning, there is always a good number of starlings that make a mad dash for the feeders. Howver, I don't have to travel too far from my home to notice there are little to no starlings.
Paul.
Warning! This post contains atrocious spelling, and terrible grammar. Approach with extreme edginess.
All the juveniles must've been in my garden then! We've had loads of them over the summer. They seemed to send a "scout" out to find food and within seconds they suddenly descended on the feeders! Very cheeky characters....but they clear the feeders within minutes.
Make the most of today because, unlike Sky+, there isn't a rewind button.
Starlings have been in decline for a number of years. Its a bit too early to see what sort of year they have had nationally but between 1995 and 2007 the population declined by 31% according to the Breeding Bird Survey results.
Some of the potential issues in urban areas are a lack of suitable nesting sites and a shortage of insect prey to feed their young. In areas where they have these essentials they can fair very well and are likely to raise two broods. However, if the habitat cannot provide them with all they need, they may struggle to raise any young successfully.
To give them a hand, put up a starling box (45mm entrance hole and twice the size of a standard tit box) at least 3m high on a north or east facing wall and try to encourage insects into gardens having a mix of bare earth, long and short grass. I nearly forgot, try to avoid all garden chemicals as well!
Warden Intern at Otmoor.