Identify this bird? (pictures included)

[Colibri]

*Originally posted by Jadis *
**And yes, Colibri…northeast PA is definitely in North America. **

Well, I thought so. What I meant was, there are some close relatives of the species in Eurasia where the juveniles might not be distinguishable. If I hadn’t known where the picture was taken, I couldn’t be sure it was Sturnus vulgaris.

[brachyrhynchos]

Another 100% sure vote for European Starling for all the reasons Colibri (hi Colibri!) mentioned, plus that distinctive dark smudge between the eye and bill. You can check that smudge out here on an adult face and also note the same bill shape. Not many birds have that bill.

But…but…isn’t that an adult female House Sparrow (or juvenile, perhaps) in the second photo with the starling? Unstreaked breast, buffy eyeline, hefty bill. I say Passer domesticus.

[astro]

Starlings are such disgusting birds. Is there a an effective way to eradicate them without harming other birds?

[mordecaiB]

Yep, a juvenile Starling. Yep, a House Sparrow. I would advise you to either get an upside down suet feeeder or take the feeder down for a couple of weeks. From my experience, if you allow Starlings to feed, they will soon over run your feeding area, chasing away woodpeckers, chickadees, and nuthatches.

Starlings were so bad the last place I lived, in the winter they flew down my chimney and ended up in my basement.

[Mangetout]

*Originally posted by astro *
**Starlings are such disgusting birds. Is there a an effective way to eradicate them without harming other birds? **

What makes you say that they are disgusting (I really can’t understand such a statement; I’ve always admired starlings both for their organised behaviour and their attractive plumage).

[HeyHomie]

*Originally posted by Colibri *
I am 100% sure the bird in Jadis’ photos is a juvenile European Starling

[British Accent]
It could be an African Starling!
[/British Accent]

:: rimshot ::

[Epimetheus]

[monty python]
Beautiful Plumage, eh?
[/monty phython]

[barbitu8]

**rastahomie **, you must be a journalist, as you excerpted only part of what Colibri said. He finished the sentence with “assuming that the photo was taken in North America.” The last time I checked an atlas, Africa was not in NA.

People say starlings are disgusting birds since they take over other birds’ nests and the hatchling starlings kick the proper inhabitants out of the nests. They and cowbirds are probably the two worst for this (in NA anyway). However, that’s their nature, and that’s Nature.

[Mangetout]

*Originally posted by barbitu8 *
People say starlings are disgusting birds since they take over other birds’ nests and the hatchling starlings kick the proper inhabitants out of the nests

Are you sure about that? - I’ve never heard of it before (I knew Cuckoos do this)

[astro]

*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**What makes you say that they are disgusting (I really can’t understand such a statement; I’ve always admired starlings both for their organised behaviour and their attractive plumage). **

Here

Birds to Rival Jackson Pollock, but the Canvas May Be Your Car

The local birders, of all people, talk of a more radical, more final solution. “Cutting down the trees won’t solve anything,” said Peter Schmidt, a naturalist at Caumsett State Park. “Killing the birds will. I have no problem with that.”

Starlings, it turns out, have few friends. Though they were introduced from England in the 1890’s in Central Park, by a New Yorker who wanted to see all the birds of Shakespeare transplanted to America they are still considered interlopers.

Mr. Schmidt nurses a grudge against them for evicting the park’s
native woodpeckers from their painstakingly drilled homes. Howard Boltson, of the local Audubon Society, bitterly recounts how the hungry brutes denuded his yew trees of their berries in an hour, leaving a resident pair of mockingbirds bereft of what they had staked out as their winter food supply

Here

Starlings redecorate campus

Starlings redecorate campus

Michael Whitaker’s walk to the Quad is a little less picturesque than most. The sidewalk he must use to get to class has been re-paved, so to speak.

But the problem seems particularly conspicuous this fall.

Like a fresh coat of crusty whitewash, bird droppings seem to be relentless in covering signs, sidewalks and whatever other immobile object is unlucky enough to rest in the line of fire.

The population of birds is way up, said Larry Pridemore of the University’s Department of Operations and Maintenance.

In fact, the amount of birds roosting near campus buildings every year is great enough for the department to have a special account used specifically to deal with the “bird problem.”

“It’s a big operation,” said Pridemore, the O & M foreman who oversees work crews dealing with the birds. Pridemore did not return phone calls in regard to the actual cost of the cleanup and maintenance, but said it was “very expensive.”

and here
Starlings and Their Control

Damage
In Alberta, starlings can be a nuisance to livestock producers. They consume and contaminate livestock feed and water. They also “whitewash” buildings, facilities and animals with their droppings. In winter, flocks of up to 2,000 birds can consume 1 to 2 tonnes of feed in a month and can contaminate or spoil an additional 500 to 1,000 kg of feed. Worse still, starlings may selectively eat the high-protein portion of protein-supplemented livestock feed. Starlings can also transfer many diseases between livestock animals, particularly swine.

[Mangetout]

Ah, they aren’t native, in that case I can imagine they might cause havoc; over here they aren’t much of a problem (their numbers have declined in recent years though).

[barbitu8]

They are called ** European ** starlings. Cowbirds are not native either and both of them raid other bird nests.

[Colibri]

*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**Are you sure about that? - I’ve never heard of it before (I knew Cuckoos do this) **

One problem with Starlings is that they are hole-nesters, and will evict native hole-nesting species, such as Bluebirds, from holes or bird-houses they have built their nests in and take over. One remedy for this, for birds that are smaller than Starlings, is to provide nest-boxes with a hole that is too small for the Starling to enter.

The “hatchling” Starlings do not kick the inhabitants out of the nest, it’s the adults that do this.

Cuckoos do not usurp bird’s nests for their own use, rather they deposit their eggs in other bird’s nests to be raised by these foster species. In some species, such as the European Cuckoo, the young cuckoo evicts the foster-parents’ eggs or nestlings so it will get all the food. Other species co-exist with their foster siblings. (The North American species do not have this habit, but raise their own young).

[Jadis]

*Originally posted by brachyrhynchos *
But…but…isn’t that an adult female House Sparrow (or juvenile, perhaps) in the second photo with the starling? Unstreaked breast, buffy eyeline, hefty bill.

Oops!! Sorry about that…I am getting a large number of both House Sparrows and House Finches at my feeder, and when I first looked at the pic, my brain registered a plump little brown bird and I called it a finch without closer inspection. The sparrows usually look a lot leaner than the finches, but this one was sort of hunkered down behind the starling, making it appear short and fat…more finchlike. Foo.

I know that Starlings can be pests (especially on farms, apparently), but right now I’m more pissed off about the squirrel that has decided to root around in my buckets of marigolds looking for seeds that dropped in when they used to be underneath the feeder. My marigolds, which were gorgeous, are all but destroyed now. At the risk of alienating my new birdie friends, I have to stop putting seeds in the feeder entirely until my neighbor can live-trap the squirrels and take them away. Stoopid squirrels.

Ah well, live and learn.

[namowal]

Assuming this isn’t a hoax, it looks like some starlings have gone from raiding the bird feeder to raiding coin quarters.

http://www.snopes2.com/photos/carwash.htm

[Mangetout]

I did notice the word European in there, honestly I did; I’m not quite sure why it hadn’t registered that they were introduced.

So you got starlings, we got grey squirrels, hmmm.

[Colibri]

*Originally posted by Mangetout *
**I did notice the word European in there, honestly I did; I’m not quite sure why it hadn’t registered that they were introduced. **

A Shakespeare enthusiast, Eugene Scheffland, decided that the America would be a better place if it had all the birds mentioned in the Bard’s plays. So about 1890 he released a bunch of species, including about 100 Starlings, in New York City’s Central Park. The Starling is the only one that “took,” but they spread like wildfire, colonizing most of temperate North America in only 75 years.