Starling, European

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EUROPEAN STARLING

Sturnus vulgaris

PSALM 96:11-12, LET THE HEAVENS REJOICE AND LET THE EARTH BE GLAD; LET THE SEA ROAR, AND THE FULLNESS THEREOF. LET THE FIELD BE JOYFUL, AND ALL THAT IS THEREIN: THEN SHALL ALL THE TREES OF THE WOOD REJOICE.

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The iridescent sheen on the top of these birds is in my opinion similar to the sheen of the grackles. In the sun their black feathers shine with purple, teal, patches; additionally, they are VERY noisy. The similarities stop there.

They are smaller and "squatter" than the grackle and have a long beak, spots on their belly and tail feathers,

and their tail feathers are relative short for their body size. At our house they always come in flocks either to the trees or the feeder. They also fly very fast and dart quickly from tree to the feeder.

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Spring 2020, we still have a few starlings around. I think two males and a female. The males come fairly regularly. I have not seen a flock yet. Will be on the lookout for fledges soon.

Late spring 2020 we started seeing fledges by the middle of August we ended up with 13 fledges for the season. All of the fledges had left by the 11th only one was left and I frequently saw the female adult. I have not seen the pair together in awhile yet.

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Fall 2019 we still have two of these occasionally but do not see the rest of the flock.

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As of July 2019, we have a flock that comes almost daily, around mid-morning (later than most of the others). We first saw the males only coming back and forth to the feeder. Later, when the flock starting coming we observed at least two fledglings.

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ALL PICTURES ON THIS SITE WERE TAKEN ONLY BY ABBY, CJ OR ME. WITH THE EXCEPTION OF THE PHOTOS ON THE BIRDING FIELD TRIP PAGE, ALL PICTURES HAVE ALL BEEN TAKEN IN OUR URBAN BACKYARD/TREES, OR IN THE SKY AND TREES ABOVE OUR HOUSE/NEIGHBORHOOD FROM 2018 TO THE PRESENT. WE ARE USUALLY BIRDING EVERYDAY BUT ARE ALSO USUALLY BEHIND UPLOADING PICTURES.

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