Classification
Order — Passeriformes.
Family — Sturnidae.
Genus — Sturnus.
Species — Sturnus vulgaris.
Habitat
Starlings typically live around people, using mowed lawns, city streets, and agricultural fields for feeding; and trees, buildings, and other structures for nesting. Their main requirements are open, grassy areas in which to forage, a water source, and trees or buildings that contain suitable cavities or niches for nesting. They avoid large, unbroken stretches of forest, chaparral, and desert.
Outward appearance
Length: 7.9–9.1 in (20–23 cm).
Wingspan: 12.2–15.7 in (31–40 cm).
Weight: 2.1–3.4 oz (60–96 g).
Adult starlings are about the size of a chunky Robin.
Plumage is glossy black withan irridescent green/purple sheen.
Tail is short and squared (vs.the long tail of a grackle). Triangular shape in flight.
Eyes are black (Common Blackbirds have a yellow eye ring).
Bill is yellow during breeding season (January to June) and dark other times.
Legs are pinkish-red.
After the first molt, juveniles have grayish brown plumage with lots of white spots on their head and breast, and they also have a brownish/blackish bill - they almost look like a different kind of bird.
It is hard to tell sexes apart.
They waddle.
Their flight is direct and fast, unlike the rising and falling flight of many blackbirds.
Character
Starlings are boisterous, loud, and they travel in large groups (often with blackbirds and grackles). They race across fields, beak down and probing the grass for food; or they sit high on wires or trees making a constant stream of rattles, whirrs, and whistles.
Feeding
Starlings will eat nearly anything, but they focus on insects and other invertebrates when they’re available. Common prey include grasshoppers, beetles, flies, caterpillars, snails, earthworms, millipedes, and spiders. They also eat fruits including wild and cultivated cherries, holly berries, hackberries, mulberries, tupelo, Virginia creeper, sumac, and blackberries; as well as grains, seeds, nectar, livestock feed, and garbage.
Features
Starlings are great vocal mimics: individuals can learn the calls of up to 20 different species. Birds whose songs starlings often copy include the Eastern Wood-Pewee, Killdeer, meadowlarks, Northern Bobwhite, Wood Thrush, Red-tailed Hawk, American Robin, Northern Flicker, and many others.
A female European Starling may try to lay an egg in the nest of another female. A female that tries this parasitic tactic often is one that could not get a mate early in the breeding season. The best females find mates and start laying early. The longer it takes to get started, the lower the probability of a nest's success. Those parasitic females may be trying to enhance their own breeding efforts during the time that they cannot breed on their own.
Breeding
Starlings nest in cavities: in hollow trees, dead tree-fern trunks, under the eaves of houses, in letter boxes, crevices in cliffs and burrows. Big cavities may be filled with up to a cubic meter of material. Bird boxes are readily used. The nest is usually made of dry grass lined with finer material, but anything available is welcome. They excavate sites in clay banks or roadside cuttings (recorded only in New Zealand). Some nest in open sites, e.g. ponga crowns or dense trees. Starlings often nest colonially; males defend 1-2 m from the nest, and may control several sites and females. Breeding is synchronised, with most eggs laid within 7 days of the median laying date in September-October. Unlike starlings in Europe, the start of breeding is not correlated with latitude. Replacement clutches and late starters lay in November, and successful early nesters may have a second brood in early December. Clutch size averages 4-5 (1-9), but some (10%) clutches are enlarged by dumping or two females sharing a nest. Many chicks do not survive to fledge. Males incubate in the mornings, and both parents feed the young until 1-2 weeks after fledging.
Diseases
It is important to be very observant and watch for minor changes in behavior. Small things such as any swelling of the toes, feet or legs, not playing, not talking as much, not taking normal baths, keeping the feathers rumpled or fluffed instead of sleek and smooth, a bird that looks sleepy, runny nose, shivering, glassy, red, or watery eyes, sneezing, coughing, mucus in nose, rapid breathing, vomiting, hiding the head in the plumage, loose stool (this could be caused by a change in diet) If the bird is lethargic, lame, twitching. staggering, or twisting the head, are all reasons to contact a vet right away. Any bird that has been in a cats mouth needs to go on antibiotics right away, even if you don't see anything wrong with it. Learn as much as possible about your bird, such as the normal weight and diet, as most vets have little experience with starlings and may not know that they eat mainly insects, or their normal weight. It is always a good idea to find a vet before you really need one. A well bird check-up will give you some basic information that will came in handy if he becomes ill later.
