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European Starling Collectible @ CompanionParrot.com

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Parrot & Bird Art & Collectibles

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Audubon Urban Birds Plush Collection: European Starling

European Starling - Audubon Plush Bird (Authentic Bird Sound)

The European Starling Plush Bird by Wild Republic is part of the Audubon Urban Birds Plush Collection. The Audubon European Starling plush bird stands 5" tall and makes real bird call sound. This birdcall was produced by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. This great bird also comes with it's own information card with tons of facts about the European Starling! This common, non-native bird can be seen across much of the United States and Canada, particularly in cities and surrounding suburbs. Usually seen in large flocks, the starling forages in open areas for insects, seeds and grain. Its song can vary, and often imitates those of other birds. Nesting sites include cavities in many man-made structures. This bird also competes with woodpeckers for tree hole nesting sites.

Get it at AMAZON.COM!

Where can I find a Starling Breeder??

If you are interesting in owner a European Starling, or one of the many different varieties please check out these links:

Starlings and Mynahs for Sale

http://www.softbillsforsale.com/Starlings-Mynahs.asp

European Starling Breeders

http://www.softbillsforsale.com/sale/european-starling.asp

Glossy Starling Breeders

http://www.softbillsforsale.com/sale/glossy-starling.asp

Emerald Starling Breeders

http://www.softbillsforsale.com/sale/emerald-starling.asp

To find the right Starling for you check out Avian Web

http://www.avianweb.com/starlings.html

Wildlife Rehabilitation Directory

Starlings Crowd Skies, Pose Aviation Risk

Fast-Breeding Birds Blamed for Deadly Plane Crashes, Damage

By MIKE STARK

SALT LAKE CITY (Sept. 7) -- The next time the sky darkens with a flock of noisy unwelcome starlings, blame Shakespeare — or, better yet, a few of his strangest fans.

Had the Bard not mentioned the starling in the third scene of "Henry IV," arguably the most hated bird in North America might never have arrived. In the early 1890s, about 100 European starlings were released in New York City's Central Park by a group dedicated to bringing to America every bird ever mentioned by Shakespeare.

Some 200 million shiny black European starlings crowd North America, from the cool climes of Alaska to the balmy reaches of Mexico's Baja peninsula. The enormous flocks endanger air travel, mob cattle operations, chase off native songbirds, roost on city blocks, leaving behind corrosive, foul-smelling droppings and hundreds of millions of dollars of damage each year.
And getting rid of them is near impossible.
Last year U.S. government agents poisoned, shot and trapped 1.7 million starlings, more than any other nuisance species, according to new figures, only to see them roaring back again.
"It's sort of like bailing the ocean with a thimble," said Richard Dolbeer, a retired Wildlife Services researcher in Sandusky, Ohio who spent years trying to figure out ways to keep starlings — which he calls "flying bullets" — and other birds from causing problems at airports. Federal aviation officials say they have caused $4 million in damage since 1990.
After the starlings' introduction, they quickly expanded west, taking advantage of vast tracts of forested land opening up to agriculture and human development, Dolbeer said. By the 1950s, starlings had reached California and nearly all parts in-between. Today, it's one of the most common birds in the U.S.
Their prodigious presence is no mystery. Starlings breed like crazy, eat almost anything, are highly mobile and operate in overwhelming numbers. They're also expert at nesting in protected nooks and making an intimidating statement as they swirl in vast clouds called "murmurations."
"They're great survivors and quite the biological machine," said Greg Butcher, director of bird conservation at the National Audubon Society.
They're also responsible for the most deadly bird strikes in aviation: a 1960 civilian crash in Boston that killed 62 and a 1996 military cargo plane crash that killed 34 in the Netherlands. Since then, there have been close calls, including a Boeing 747 that ran into a flock in Rome last fall. No one was killed but the badly damaged plane had a rough landing.
Those kinds of scenarios are why wildlife biologist Mike Smith has been tweaking a series of traps used at Salt Lake City International Airport, where there have been 19 reported starling strikes since 1990. The traps use dog food to attract a starling or two. Hundreds more soon follow, driven by their innate desire to flock with each other. He once caught 800 in a single day.
The most popular lethal tactic is a poison called DRC-1339, which is often sprinkled on french fries, a favorite starlings snack. Within a day or two, starlings keel over from organ failure.
No other state poisoned more starlings last year than Washington. Starlings there caused $9 million in damages to agricultural operations over five years. Nationwide, starlings cause $800 million in damage to agricultural operations each year, according to a Cornell University estimate.
At one feed lot, some 200,000 starlings gathered each day, lining fence tops, wires, water troughs and even perching on top of cows. They've learned to steal the most nutritious morsels from the cattle troughs and pose an ever-present threat of moving disease from one ranch to another, said Roger Woodruff, director of Wildlife Services in Washington.
Nearly 650,000 starlings were poisoned last year in the state, an all-time record, he said.
When killing's not an option, agents often turn to harassment campaigns.
In downtown Indianapolis, flocks as large as 40,000 show up around dusk in the winter to hang out, find food and keep warm. They quickly wear out their welcome with their noise and their mess. Crews are deployed nearly every night to scare them off with lasers, pyrotechnic explosions and noise devices with names like "screamers" and "bangers."
Like other urban areas, they've had some success shooing them out of downtown and onto undeveloped land, said Judy Loven, director of Wildlife Services in Indiana, but it's likely going to be an ongoing battle.
"They're pretty much wise to our ways and pass that information along," said Jeff Homan, a wildlife researcher in Bismarck, N.D., who's part of a team focusing on starlings and blackbirds.
It's unlikely those who engineered the starlings' release in Central Park — including its leader, New York drug manufacturer named Eugene Schieffelin — could have fully imagined the consequences of their experiment, said author Kim Todd, who wrote about the introduction in her 2001 book "Tinkering With Eden: A Natural History of Exotic Species in America."
"It's sad but true that we often only see a creature's beauty when it is out-of-reach or rare," Todd said in an e-mail. "I can't imagine that Schieffelin, who appreciated starlings on the page and in small groups, would have the same affection for them in their enormous, pesky flocks."

Birdorable European Starling

Starlings are native to most of Europe and western Asia. They have also been introduced to Australia & New Zealand, South Africa and North America. They are among the most familiar birds in the world. These intelligent birds are known for their abilty to mimic sounds and for forming huge flocks at roosting time. This is our totally cute Birdorable version of the European Starling.

Click here to visit Birdorable!

Birdorable has "Bird Themed" merchandise for hundreds of different bird and parrot species including the European Starling!

European Starling Facts by WDFW

Click here to read the WDFW Starling Facts

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Quick Info

European Starling

Field Marks

Pointed bill-yellow for most of year, dark in fall
Black plumage with green and purple iridescence
White spots scattered about head and body-largest in fall
Dark wings and tail
Pointed wings
Short tail

Habitat

During breeding season, starlings require holes for nesting, as well as open fields for feeding. The usual nesting sites are holes and crevices in trees, buildings, and rooftops. Starlings also plunder other birds' nests and use them as their own.

Status

European starlings are non-native birds that are displacing native cavity-nesting birds. They are commonly seen in large flocks in suburban and rural areas. They are considered a nuisance because they nest in gutters or vents of buildings, sometimes causing damage.

The Spread of the European Starling in North America (to 1928)

Editor Charles H. Smith's Note: At the time of publication of this short monographic work, Ms. Cooke was a Scientific Aid at the Bureau of Biological Survey, Division of Biological Investigations. Original pagination indicated within double brackets. Citation: United States Department of Agriculture, Circular No. 40 (1928).

Click Here to See Article

Starling Books

Talking Starling: Rowdy Starling "Gimme Kiss"

Buy your Starling Food Online!

Here is a list of Online Stores that carry insectivore food and food for Starlings:

http://www.kingscages.com/

http://www.zoofood.com/insectivore.html

http://www.arcatapet.com/

http://www.sugar-glider-store.com/insectivorefare-10-.html

http://www.bulkbirdfood.com/

https://www.mazuri.com/

http://www.exoticnutrition.com/

Shakespeare to Blame for Introduction of European Starlings to U.S.

Whistle. Pop. Whirrrr. Zzzt. Repeat. Many, many, many times.

That’s the song, if you want to call it that, of the European starling. Two of these relatively drab, chunky little birds are now my next-door neighbors—the pair moved into a hole in the maple tree in front of my house. Whistle. Pop. Whirrrr. Zzzt. Repeat. Incessantly. They fly into the hole. They fly out of the hole. They dig away at the tree’s innards and fling the detritus onto the sidewalk below with their little yellow beaks. I might be grateful if I could count on the birds to toss sawdust onto freshly fallen snow so that pedestrians got a firmer footing. But it’s already spring; the birds are just digging a deeper hole for themselves.

Like an asteroid put on a collision course with the earth millions of years ago, the starlings invaded my territory because of events set in motion in the distant past. About a decade ago the top of the main trunk of the maple became diseased and saw the business end of a chainsaw. That left a dead top, the kind that cavity-nesting birds love to excavate to build their little homes. Only about 20 feet from the front door of my little home in the Bronx. Zzzt.

The other starting point lies much deeper in the mists of time. In the late 1590s Shakespeare noted the mimicking ability of the starling while writing Henry IV, Part 1. Hotspur is contemplating driving King Henry nuts by having a starling repeat the name of Hotspur’s brother-in-law Mortimer, whom Henry refuses to ransom out of prisoner status. “Nay, I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but ‘Mortimer,’ ” Hotspur whines. (In theater and life, in-laws can often be counted on for dramatic conflict.) Whirrrr.

We move on to the late 19th century, when a group called the American Acclimatization Society was reportedly working on their pre-environmental-impact-statement project to introduce to the U.S. every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s scripts. Clearly, the Bard abided birds—his works include references to more than 600 avian species. A Bronx resident, drug manufacturer Eugene Schieffelin (a street bearing his name isn’t far from my house) seems to be particularly responsible for the starlings’ arrival here. Well, his chickens have come home to roost. Pop. (The society also brought the house sparrow to our shores, a pair of which nest in a vent on the front of my other, human, next-door neighbor’s house.)

The Acclimatization Society released some hundred starlings in New York City’s Central Park in 1890 and 1891. By 1950 starlings could be found coast to coast, north past Hudson Bay and south into Mexico. Their North American numbers today top 200 million. As bird-watcher Jeffrey Rosen put it in a 2007 New York Times article, “It isn’t their fault that they treated an open continent much as we ourselves did.” Zzzt.

So why are starlings so little loved? Their looks don’t help: short, stocky and dark with light speckles, they look like chocolate that’s been left out for a few days. And have I mentioned their obnoxious series of sounds, er, song? Another strike against them is their competition with native birds that also make nests in handy cavities. Starlings have thereby been oft indicted as a major reason for the decline of the strikingly beautiful eastern bluebird, state bird of New York and Missouri. (The state bird of Missouri is not the cardinal?)

But perhaps starlings aren’t so bad. When the sun hits their feathers just right, they do have a certain iridescent attractiveness. And they have fascinating jaws. That’s right, jaws. Most of the world’s starlings have conventional jaws that close firmly. But our imported starlings’ jaws are wired completely differently—their musculature enables the beak to strongly open. According to The Birder’s Handbook, “the closed bill is inserted between blades of grass in thick turf or other cover, and then sprung open to expose hidden prey.” Which get to observe the unusual musculature of the jaw from the inside. Pop.

And starlings actually appear to be innocent in the case of the missing bluebirds. The feather friends at the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology contend on their Web site that “a study in 2003 found few actual effects on populations of 27 native species. Only sapsuckers showed declines because of starlings, and other species appeared to be holding their own against the invaders.” So when it comes to songbird decline, as Shakespeare almost said, maybe the fault is not in our starlings but in ourselves. Zzzt.

Extended song learning in wild European Starlings

The songs of wild adult European starlings,Sturnus vulgaris, were recorded over successive years to determine whether repertoire size and composition changed between years. Repertoire-size estimates increased between the first and last year of recording for five of seven males that were at least 2 years old when first recorded. All seven birds showed extensive changes in the composition of their repertoires. Many phrase types were dropped from the repertoire, and others were modified. All birds added many new phrase types to their repertoires between years. These results indicate that extended song learning occurs in adult starlings, even in birds that are at least 4 years old, and that repertoire size is correlated with age in this species. The influence of song repertoire size on male-male competition and possibly female mate choice may be related to its value as an indicator of male age.

Taken From:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/

Starling Thieves in Fredericksburg, Virginia

Starling Car Wash
or
Change is in the Air!
[Not original title--it came from cyberspace too!]
A Bird Story from Cyberspace sent our way by Glenn Barlow who received it from an unknown source, andsubmitted to all-creatures by Connie Young - 13 Jul 2002
Bill owns a company that manufactures and installs car wash systems. Magic Wand Car Wash Systems just in case you want to buy one. Bill's company installed a car wash system in Frederick, Md. for a gentleman. Now understand that these are a complete system including the money changer and money taking machines.The problem started when the new owner complained to Bill that he was losing significant amounts of money from his coin machines each week. He went as far as to accuse Bill's employees of having a key to the boxes and ripping him off. Bill just couldn't believe that his people would do that. So they set up a [photo] trap for the thief.

The owner of the car wash only knew that his money was vanishing - and accused the vendor of the machine of stealing the cash. When the company set up a hidden video camera to catch the thief, they found that it was a bunch of starling, climbing inside the machine to get the shiny quarters.

Best Starling Art

Shop for Starling Owners!

Merchandise for pet starling lovers such as t-shirts, mugs and other clothing and household items imprinted with illustrations and charming photo compositions of pet starlings, mostly depicting the personality and character of these amazing birds as they interact with their human families.

http://www.cafepress.com/starlingshop

Also..

Awesome Starling Tee-Shirts!

"My Darling Starling" T-Shirts

Starlings on YOUPET

I made a blog for Rowdy on YOUPET and found a few other friends!

Rowdy

Mr. T

Cleo

#1 Starling Website! Starling Talk!

Visit the #1 Captive Starling Website!

http://www.starlingtalk.com/

Yes! Starlings can talk!

Here are some great videos from YOUTUBE!!

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=talking+starlings&search_type=&aq=f

Fledgling Video

When you see baby Starlings like these and they are not in any danger please leave them be!! Even though they are cute as a button!

Found a Baby Starling?

You must act quick but stay calm there is help!

**FIND A BABY STARLING?* If you find a baby Starling you must act quick to save it from dehydration and to save its life. Please visit this website for more details! CLICK HERE! http://www.starlingtalk.com/emergencycare.htm
Starling talk is a great website for Starling Information and Advice! http://www.starlingtalk.com

Starling Nestling

Adult and Fledgling

Starling Treats & Food!

Golden West Bag O bugs

Avico Bugs-N-Berries Universal Insectivore Diet

Orlux Insect Mix

Orlux Insect Pa tee

Quiko Goldy Egg Food Insectivore

1 lb Bugs and Berries Universal Insectivore Diet PureProducts

BERRIES and BUGS GLIDER DIET

Insectivore-Fare

Starlings know if you are watching them??

I found this article today about a study done in the UK about European Starlings.

By Roger Highfield
Published: 12:05AM BST 30 Apr 2008

Starlings can tell if you are watching them, according to a study that has shown for the first time that starlings respond to a human's gaze.

Starlings will keep away from their food dish if a human is looking at it. However, if the person is just as close, but their eyes are turned away, the birds resumed feeding earlier and consumed more food overall, according to experiments by Julia Carter and colleagues at the University of Bristol, reported today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Biological Sciences.

Could this be exploited to make a better scarecrow? "Starlings do seem to have a reasonably strong aversion to eyes, even to artificial eyes, but these birds are also very quick learners," she says.

"Previous studies have shown that starlings will learn within a matter of hours to ignore even relatively elaborate bird scarers - these devices never do what a real predator would, they don't actually chase the birds or present any other signs of danger, so the birds quickly learn to ignore them."

This fear of being observed directly may be hard wired into bird brains, since predators tend to look at their prey when they attack, so direct eye-gaze can predict imminent danger. Equally, it might be a sign that starlings are doing something smarter than that, by taking into account the view of another, not just another bird but another species.

Carter says:"It is not yet clear what this means for the intelligence of starlings, they are certainly far more observant and sensitive to human facial cues that we might have imagined - what we find is responses to really very subtle differences in a human's eye-gaze, even though there are far more conspicuous and salient cues that don't change in the experiment: the close proximity of the person, and their body and face orientation."

"The possibility that the starlings can "read the intention of another species" is certainly an intriguing one, and is indeed an interesting possibility, though there are likely alternatives to consider," she says.

"The simplest explanation might be that these birds are responding at an innate instinctive level: circular eye-like patterns are thought to be rather conspicuous to vertebrates like starlings, so a human who is staring directly at the starling is likely to attract the bird's attention (because the direct eye-gaze presents a completely visible circular pattern) more so than the averted eye-gaze (which presents an angled view, and therefore a less circular pattern)."

Another likely possibility is that the starlings have learned to fear a direct look. "If a starling is ever chased or captured in the wild or in captivity, the event is preceded by the captor looking directly at the bird.

"A starling is never chased if it is not looked at first, so a predictive relationship can be learned - looking leads to a risk of capture. The final possibility is that the starling can recognise that the human is looking at it, and infer the likelihood that they will consequently be chased."

But, she says, "It is notoriously difficult to get inside the black box of an animal's brain in order to establish, for example, whether they can appreciate another's visual perspective or even whether they have a 'theory of mind'.

The reason that they benefit from being sensitive to a human gaze is down to peer pressure. Wild starlings are highly social and will quickly join others at a productive foraging patch. This leads to tough competition for food so an individual starling that assesses a relatively low predation risk, and responds by returning more quickly to a foraging patch (as in this study), will gain valuable feeding time before others join the patch.

"By responding to these subtle eye-gaze cues, starlings would gain a competitive advantage over individuals that are not so observant. This work highlights the importance of considering even very subtle signals that might be used in an animal's decision-making process."

Responses to obvious indicators of risk - a predator looming overhead or the fleeing of other animals - are well documented, but Carter argued that a predator's head and eye-gaze direction are also useful indicators of risk, even though subtle, since many predators orient their head and eyes towards their prey as they attack.

Carter did the study with Nicholas Lyons, Hannah Cole, and Arthur Goldsmith.