Starlings! (1 Viewer)

Dave1981 · Apr 23, 2009

Do Starlings scare other birds from gardens? It seems they are the only birds that come to my table, I have a good 10+ flock that devour everything I put out, esp the mealworm, in minutes, the odd blackbird I get is chased off and the collared doves just take the scraps from the floor, its frustrating cos I see goldfinches and the odd House Sparrow flying around my estate!
Im fairly new to 'birding' and I will continue to feed the starlings no matter what, they are pretty and in decline I read, but it would be nice to have a little variety, should I get another table? Solutions welcome.
My Nan has loads of Starlings in her garden and the other birds dont seem intimidated by them at all.

DaveN · Apr 23, 2009

Dave1981 said:
Do Starlings scare other birds from gardens? It seems they are the only birds that come to my table, I have a good 10+ flock that devour everything I put out, esp the mealworm, in minutes, the odd blackbird I get is chased off and the collared doves just take the scraps from the floor, its frustrating cos I see goldfinches and the odd House Sparrow flying around my estate!
Im fairly new to 'birding' and I will continue to feed the starlings no matter what, they are pretty and in decline I read, but it would be nice to have a little variety, should I get another table? Solutions welcome.
My Nan has loads of Starlings in her garden and the other birds dont seem intimidated by them at all.

From my experience some birds can be a little intimidated by Starlings as they can be quite aggressive. That's the trouble with having a bird table, the larger birds especially many of them will make light work of the food you put out. Have you actually got any hanging feeders that could attract other species? There's also caged ground feeder that only allows smaller birds inside to feed.

Dave1981 · Apr 23, 2009

Thanks for the response. I have hangers and fat balls but no birds on em so far, although the starlings like to knock em around lol maybe I just need a little more patience.

lmans66 · Apr 23, 2009

Starlings might be a problem but they too are birds..... just a thought.... life is life.

mikfoz · Apr 23, 2009

Starlings are fine. I quite often see them being bullied off feeders by Sparrows. All birds can get impatient queuing and jump in. They do tend to eat more, but the real glutton on my feeder thing is a Collared Dove which really does nick all the seed.

As far as I'm concerned I'm not really all that bothered. All the birds get fed one way or another. If the Dove nicks all the food from the top table feeder than there's still plenty in the hanging feeders it can't get at so the little birds won't starve.

marcia A · Apr 23, 2009

We are lucky enough to have Starlings in our garden as well as a range of other birds including some very stroppy blackbirds who dont seem the least bit intimidated by them. I feed the birds every morning and admittedly the Starlings are some of the first to come and grab the takings. They seem to flock in the trees overlooking the hedge every morning waiting for breakfast!o

We also have wood pigeons, collared doves, a pair of robins, chaffinches, dunnocks and a pair of cheeky Jackdaws who occasionally come to visit. None of them seem that bothered by the Starlings. Mind you the Starlings always seem to get to the fat balls first and at this time of year they dont last 5 minutes. It'll be even worse when the youngsters arrive - and they will be here soon as the adults are nesting in our roof for the 4th year running.o

What I would like to know is where have all the Greenfinches gone. We used to get them on a regular basis but now you are lucky if you see them once or twice a fortnight!
:-C

Bananafishbones · Apr 23, 2009

I have a good array of birds, but the Starlings out number everything else. I can get upto 60 Starlings (usually 20+) and at first I found it very intimidating and worried about all the other birds.
What actualy happens is that the fatballs /suet block seem to be solely for the Starlings, Blue tits and Long Tail tits, The bird table is devoured by anything big.... Jackdaw, woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Rook & Starling. All the feeders are then left to the Finches, Tits etc.

I witnessed a Male Housesparrow fend off a Starling on the bird table the other day, also the Male Greenfinch dont get bullied by Starlings.

Over the last 12 months my garden has found a feeding spot for all the species, large and small, and I would actually miss the starlings if they didnt come. But sometimes 60 does seem too many.....

fugl · Apr 23, 2009

Starlings can cause trouble at backyard feeders, alright. They're aggressive, certainly, but in my experience the main problems are their tendency travel in flocks & the fact that they're voracious feeders, not aggressiveness as such. Quarreling mobs of the species turn up at my suet cages every winter, which they clean out in a few hours & then depart, leaving nothing for the woodpeckers, kinglets & warblers. And they'll repeat these hit-&-run tactics every day as long as I keep filling the suet cages. I don't mind having starlings around-- I don't hate them like a lot of my countrymen seem to do--but they do go through a lot of suet & to discourage them I sometimes stop filling the cages for a day or 2. This isn't a permanent solution but it generally provides a respite, the flocks not returning for a while--sometimes for as long as a week--even after I resume putting out the suet.

But this might not work in areas of higher starling density. Starlings aren't resident in my neighborhood so there aren't always some around to keep an eye on things.

bellow · Apr 23, 2009

Hi Dave, I had the same problem to start with , then as one of the members stated, hanging feeders solve the problem. I purchased 2 hanging feeders. One was for fat-ball & the other seed. The seed feeder came with a cage, but I found I didn,t really need it. The fatball was with normal 6mm squares taking 4 fatballs(remember, remove net bag,before putting in feeder).At first the starlings hogged the fatball feeder almost exclusively, so nothing else could get to it. It was then I thought of the cage. With a bit of juggling, the seed cage now fitted over the fatball feeder, problem solved. The starlings would be first to the feeder , but because they had to stretch their necks thro, the cage they had a quick feed got fed-up & moved on, leaving the "Bluey,s" & smaller birds to come in on the fatball feeder thro, the cage. It worked a treat. The seed feeder did its stuff attracting,Gold,Green, Chaff, Chiffchaff L.T.Tit & GT.Tit.Best bit was a Woody had been watching this action for weeks and in a quite period, approached the seed feeder & managed to get his beak in the feeder hole & had a snack before losing his balance. I got it on camera, will post it when I sort out this Resizin Lark. Good Luck . Bellow

mikfoz · Apr 24, 2009

bellow said:
I got it on camera, will post it when I sort out this Resizin Lark. Good Luck . Bellow

Google VSO Image Resizer, download, install and you can just resize from a right click but with plenty of options. It'll even watermark it for you. And it's genuine freeware.

Dave1981 · Apr 24, 2009

Thanks for all your responses, as I said I dont mind feeding the Starlings, they are cute I just dint want them scaring others away thats all.
Went out and bought this contraption that you can hang all stuff on and a water dish so hope that will help aswell! Also got lots of differenrt new seeds aswell. fingers crossed!

moose1991 · Apr 27, 2009

Bought a Gardman mealworm Feeder yesterday as I thought the nesting Blue Tits would benefit from it.
I closed the lid down as far as I thought thinking it would deter the Starlings but as you can see from the photos that wasn't far enuff!
I've closed it down a bit more but can't see anything fitting through the gap that is there now.

silvercrest · May 9, 2009

Dave1981 said:
Do Starlings scare other birds from gardens? It seems they are the only birds that come to my table, I have a good 10+ flock that devour everything I put out, esp the mealworm, in minutes, the odd blackbird I get is chased off and the collared doves just take the scraps from the floor, its frustrating cos I see goldfinches and the odd House Sparrow flying around my estate!
Im fairly new to 'birding' and I will continue to feed the starlings no matter what, they are pretty and in decline I read, but it would be nice to have a little variety, should I get another table? Solutions welcome.
My Nan has loads of Starlings in her garden and the other birds dont seem intimidated by them at all.

what food exactly do you put out? in my experience, starlings love fat, but dont seem so interested in grains, which robins, dunnocks, sparrows, tits, etc like. also, ive noticed, grains attract pigeons, and starlings and pigeons fight - the pigeons winning. but pigeons seem to tolerate the smaller birds. on the other hand, maybe im talking a load of crap.

Dave1981 · May 9, 2009

silvercrest said:
what food exactly do you put out? in my experience, starlings love fat, but dont seem so interested in grains, which robins, dunnocks, sparrows, tits, etc like. also, ive noticed, grains attract pigeons, and starlings and pigeons fight - the pigeons winning. but pigeons seem to tolerate the smaller birds. on the other hand, maybe im talking a load of crap.

I have had vast improvements in my garden since using hangers, yes the starlings still come on mass but i now have collared doves, wood pigeons, green finch and sparrow and blackbirds.
I use a mixed seed and grains,those suet blocks and fat balls, mealworms....I could go through a bag a day and Nijer seed cos I want Goldfinches that occasionally fly round my estate to come to my garden!

silvercrest · May 9, 2009

Dave1981 said:
I have had vast improvements in my garden since using hangers, yes the starlings still come on mass but i now have collared doves, wood pigeons, green finch and sparrow and blackbirds.
I use a mixed seed and grains,those suet blocks and fat balls, mealworms....I could go through a bag a day and Nijer seed cos I want Goldfinches that occasionally fly round my estate to come to my garden!

thats good. You have to experiment a bit, like everything else. I had so many starlings that in the end i cut out suet and fat, except for those coconut shells filled with fat that you can buy. Some starlings come to them, but not many. Dont get me wrong, i think starlings are great birds but they are very greedy, eating everything if youre not careful what you put out. Then the other birds dont get a chance. So i find that no fat = no starlings, basically.
As for goldfinches, i wanted to encourage them, but i made a terrible mistake. I bought a packet of teasle seed from the nursery. I got the goldfinches, but the teasle took over my garden, and my neighbours - its rampant. I forgot its a kind of thistle, and thistle is, well, you know. It grows 7 foot high and is as big as trees, and nearly as tough, especially tring to get rid of it. Ive got rid of most of it now, but theres some still coming up. So if you dont want to upset the neighbours with a forest of 7 foot high thistles growing in their gardens, thistles you introduced, i advise steering well clear of teasle, even if you do like goldfinches!!!
:t:

Dave1981 · May 11, 2009

silvercrest said:
So if you dont want to upset the neighbours with a forest of 7 foot high thistles growing in their gardens, thistles you introduced, i advise steering well clear of teasle, even if you do like goldfinches!!!
:t:

Thanks I will try to remeber that, although it is tempting just to get em

silvercrest · May 11, 2009

its about the only thing they will come into my garden for. I couldnt get greenfinches in either, until i grew sunflowers. But i found i had to leave the sunflower heads on the plants (leave the plants standing all winter), and then the odd greenfinch would spend seemingly hours plucking a sunflower head. trouble is, i can never remember to buy a packet of sunflowers seeds. Greenfinches wont come to my birdtable or feeders for loose sunflower seeds, but then i dont live in the countryside. Greenfinches are common around the edge of town, parks, etc, but not here on this housing estate.

Dave1981 · May 11, 2009

Really? My Greenfinches just arrived I didnt try to lure them in or anything, they just come to the table, and I dont live in the country, just a new housing estate. Gunna buy me some sunflowers tho lol to make sure they stick around

silvercrest · May 11, 2009

Dave1981 said:
Really? My Greenfinches just arrived I didnt try to lure them in or anything, they just come to the table, and I dont live in the country, just a new housing estate. Gunna buy me some sunflowers tho lol to make sure they stick around

dont really get that many finches. a chaffinch sings all spring well into the summer every year..i really love his repetitive song, it goes on for hours, i love it. sometimes get a chaffinch on the birdtable, but rarely. goldfinches fly around, a pair in spring, a flock sometimes in winter; the greenfinch is rare, but i do see one occasionally. don't ever recall one on the birdtable or feeders. that's about all the finches there are, not counting the house sparrows - i get about 50 feeding in the garden in the winter months - a fact i'm proud of.

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