Starlings

Who doesn’t love a good challenge? Often referred to as pests, starlings seem to take over a yard especially after fledging. We can either embrace them or try to keep them from our feeders and nesting boxes. One thing you have to say about them, starlings are extremely resourceful and successful.

As the name suggests, European Starlings are not native of North America. In the 1890s, Shakespeare enthusiasts wanted all the birds mentioned in the playwright’s works to be here in the United States, so they released 100 starlings in New York City’s Central Park. The population took off and is now found from Alaska to Mexico, and from coast to coast to the tune of 200 million birds!

Even in winter, starlings remain one of the most numerous bird species in the Lehigh Valley. For example, December’s Christmas Bird Count for the Bethlehem-Easton area found 1,784 starlings, more than any backyard bird except for crows.

European Starlings are stocky black birds with short tails. They are covered with white spots during winter but turn dark and glossy in summer. This happens without changing their feathers. Feathers grown in fall have bold white tips that give them the spots. By spring, these tips have worn away, and the rest of the feather is dark and iridescent brown. It’s an unusual change that scientists term “wear molt.” In flight their wings are short and pointed, making them look like small four-pointed stars, thus their name.

Starlings are found in backyards, cities or agricultural fields. Their needs are open grassy areas in which to forage, a water source, and trees or buildings with a cavity or niche in which to build a nest.

Starlings eat insects and other invertebrates, including grasshoppers, beetles, flies, caterpillars, snails, earthworms, millipedes and spiders. They also eat fruits, including cherries, holly berries, hackberries, mulberries, Virginia creeper, sumac and blackberries. Starlings also love grains, seeds, nectar, livestock feed and garbage. No wonder there are 200 million of them! However, it appears they do not like safflower seed. We place safflower on our platform feeder in summer to give other birds a chance.

You can also deter starlings from occupying your backyard by making sure your nesting boxes are no greater than 1½ inch in diameter. Also, you may wish to keep in mind that because starlings are an imported species, they are not protected by law, as are our native birds. It is legal to remove starlings from nesting boxes.

Male starlings build the nest using grass, pine siskins, feathers, trash or string. Females finish the nest and may discard some of the material that the male included. The parents have one to three broods per year, consisting of three to six eggs in each brood. Both parents incubate the eggs for 12 days. Chicks are helpless when they hatch and fledge after 21 days.

Due to their recent arrival in North America, all our starlings on the continent are closely related genetically. Birds in Virginia are indistinguishable from those found in Utah.