Please ID this bird

Factual Questions
21

It would be nice to think so, but they are somewhat maligned here in Britain, where they are native (and sadly, rather on the decline).

Personally, I love them - I love watching a flock of them descend on the grass, work it over methodically for bugs and worms - with a few of them looking out for danger at any given moment - then suddenly take off as one and festoon a nearby roof or tree. I like their wheezy crackling calls, and all the other trills, whistles and noises they make.

I will confess that I have shut them out of the nesting holes they had chewed out in the corners of my roof - they were pulling out all the insulation, but I plan to put up some nest boxes for them to use instead.

22

You understand, Mangetout, how ironically amusing we find it that two of the most irksome and ubiquitous avian pests here–the starling and the house or English sparrow–are considered endangered species in the UK. :smiley:

23

Indeed - I think it’s a shame they have been introduced elsewhere - I am generally against that sort of thing (although in the case of the European Starlings, the people making the introduction didn’t know any better).