I got a new kind of critter at the sunflower seed feeder this morning. I’m sure it’s common bird but I am new at this!
Here’s a shot showing their size at least. They look black but then in the sun they have an iridescent indigo-ish head and iridescent yellow-green back. Beak is yellow/gold, long, and curves downward.
Those are European Starlings. Dear little chaps - I love them.
Thanks! Looking them up, here’s a cool fact:
<<All of the European Starlings found today in North America-and they number in the 200 million range-are descendants of approximately 100 birds introduced in New York City’s Central Park in the early 1890s. A society dedicated to introducing into America all of the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare set these birds free.
The starling is a European native that breeds as far north as the British Isles, northern Norway, and Russia and as far south as northern Italy and southern France. The progress of this species in North America-with what may have been the first nest site under the eaves of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City-has been nothing short of spectacular. Wintering birds reached northern Florida by 1918, and breeding birds were found in Ontario and Maine by the 1920s.>>
That’s so cool.
Watching them flocking in the evening as they are getting ready to roost is (IMO) one of the most spectacular sights the natural world has to offer - huge dense swarms numbering many thousands of birds writhe in the air like a huge pulsating organism.
There are videos of the phenomenon on Youtube, but none of them do it justice.
http://youtube.com/results?search_query=starlings&search=Search
It’s best watched from a distance though - being right underneath a dense swarming flock of birds isn’t pleasant for the clothes.
Actually, here’s one of the best:
The ‘single organism’ aspect of the flocking doesn’t really kick in until about 2:30 into that video…
Er, beg to differ slightly.
The angle and lighting are poor, so it looks like the light-brownish bird with the short tail in the foreground and the one at the top-left-hand of the picture are starlings, but the rest are all grackles. Dead giveaways are the long tail, the elongated black-purple iridescent head–especially on the one in the lower-right hand corner–and the lack of speckles or dots on the back.
Starlings are short ‘n’ chunky and have white/tan dots on their backs in breeding plumage. They also have dots on their breasts early in the breeding season, but as the feather tips wear off by brushing against the nest, those tend to fade. Starlings also have bright yellow beaks.
Grackles are long and slender, have long tails, and are solid black on their backs and fronts, and have black beaks.
Starling. Note the short tail and the back full of dots, and the yellow beak.
Grackle. Long black body, long tail, no dots, black beak.
Get some better pictures that show the beaks. You’ve got both starlings and grackles there.
Also:
Grackles are cool.
Starlings are not.
Starlings are nuisance birds who will raise two broods a year anywhere you’ll let them, such as your roof gutters, your porch overhead, or in other birdhouses where you’d much rather have purple martins. And as mentioned, they will flock in enormous shit-storming flocks, as their favorite roost happens to be the tree under which you customarily park your car.
Watching starlings flock is only “spectacular” in the sense that watching a horde of locusts would be spectacular.
Saith the jaded homeowner with a chronic starling problem… 
You’ve got Grackle and Starling in that Photo Gigi.
I do believe you’re right. I did think the birds on the right side looked like they had a bit too much tail, but I thought that might have just been the way the camera had caught them or something.
Cool. These tips will help me start to learn to distinguish them. I have bird books but I don’t know always know where to start!
My experience here in the Midwest is that groups of grackles will only come to a birdseed feeder early in the spring when other food sources are poor. They are opportunistic feeders, but birdseed is not their first preference, and as soon as bugs and worms are available, you’ll see them marching around your lawn poking into the grass, but not spending much time at the feeder.
Starlings, however, you will always have with you, as they eat anything that isn’t made of cast iron. Please don’t decide they’re “cute” when they’re still coming around in May, and start putting out bread and orange slices for them to supplement the birdseed, or you’ll have hundreds of them in a couple of weeks.
I plan to stick with the sunflower seeds, suet, seed mix, thistle and peanut pieces I’ve been using. That’s already more than I planned when I got the original feeder as a gift!
If I disappear from the boards I’ve starred in my own The Birds.
Another possibility in your area would be Rusty Blackbirds:
http://www.pbase.com/image/56524749
http://www.pbase.com/image/73421991
They’re smaller than grackles, with a shorter, squared tail. Out my way we have the similar Brewer’s Blackbirds, but I think they’re only rarely spotted in your vicinity.
In fact, starlings are pretty much the only “black” birds with yellow beaks. That’s a good way to spot them. Grackles are bigger and more irridescent and have larger, boat-shaped tails. I realize that many folks consider starlings to be pests, but they are wonderful mimics and songsters. Their normal sound, I believe, is pretty much of a rasping sound, but watch one on a branch sometime and listen to him go through his own personal repertoire and you’ll be amazed. They’re also quite beautiful at certain times of the year. I believe that if they weren’t considered pests and invaders, they’d be more widely recognized for their talents and their beauty.
Just to confirm, you have one Starling (lower left bird) plus three Grackles there. There are a couple birds in the shadows in the back whose ID is uncertain.
I also like city Starlings. As has been mentioned, they are mimics and it can be entertaining to try to figure out which birds they are imitating. Unfortunately, they nest in holes and have had a detrimental effect on native species through competition for these.
OK, it must be the grackles which looked new to me. The iridescence is very cool.
It’s easy to mistake on for the other, and it’s more complicated by the seaonal appearance change the starlings have. You get used to the winter trim, and in spring you’re wondering what this new bird is. I used to have to look them up every year.
One of the things that has helped the starling dominate the scene is the ability called “open beak probing.” They’re strong enough to poke the beak in closed, then open it in the ground. They can get to bugs other birds can’t get to.
Starlings talk better than most parrots if hand-raised from the egg.
I hate grackles. Groups of them are always chasing the other songbirds away from our feeder. At least they were, until we discovered that they don’t like safflower seeds. So that’s what we mostly use now.
So are Mockingbirds and at least they’re a native species.
I think the Starlings here are being squeezed out by the Quaker Parrots. 
I miss seeing Blue Jays, Robins and Cardinals. I really miss the Cardinals.
[sub]I hate when people mess with Mother Nature.
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Just wanted to say it is cool to hear Mangetout and Colibri say nice things about Starlings. I do some work with wildlife rehabbers and they tend to dis the Starling, favoring songbirds.
