european starling

Starling on a wire in morning light

The "dark side" can be quite colorful.

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Also known as the Common Starling. Breeding plumage showing its bright yellow bill.

Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Previously known as the European Starling.

Swinging that caterpillar this way and that before finally gobbling it down.

European Starling on beaver-chewed limb

to help you stop eating all those Christmas cookies? Perhaps this image will help.

I was shooting this one stretching downwards for a birch catkin when it lost its balance and shot out a wing to recover. Made for a better picture.

I think I'll manage to catch up today, in between shopping, making apple butter, and guests for dinner (husband is cooking dinner this time, and the pie for afters is already baked) - so here comes an SF series about eating difficulties.

This was late August. The birch leaves were just starting to turn yellow and the Starlings were just starting to gather for their flight southwards. Yesterday I posted a set of shots on Facebook of various brilliant Fall colors we still have on display around town - bright yellow birches, red...

Whatever it was, it hadn't managed to hide from this Starling.

A lot of the birds were immatures, at various stages of moulting into adult plumage. I think I have one with just one baby feather still showing and I know I have another with a full head and neck of baby brown. They all seemed to have what in Norwegian is called "nringsvett" (wisdom enough to...

My best shots of the Starlings were of the ones feeding on berries in a Whitebeam tree. The sun was right on the tree, lighting up all those bright red berries and green and yellow foliage, and often the birds were perched out in the clear working a cluster of berries in full view.

We're having lovely weather here this week - "Indian Summer". So after my Tuesday gym session I hiked over to the Moholt cemetery to see what birds were about. I decided to share a few shots from that session before going back to my chronology. So what did I see at the cemetery? I...

And finally, on my way from one body of water to the next, there was a flock of Starlings, many of them feeding youngsters, on a lawn.

Not exactly appetizing to me, but the Starling chick seems quite enthusiastic about slugs for dinner :-O

A hugely underrated and pretty garden bird, The Common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) on my bird feeder, Essex, U.K.

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris)

This Starling was singing out the "fees" for passing the kissing gate on the path down to Clickimin Brough.

This young Starling was hanging over a pair of Dutch tourists, probably hoping to berate them into dropping some of their lunch where he could grab it.

...but the lighting really struck it perfectly.

In my home town, these had become major nuisances by the 1960's. Don't know what the situation is in NZ.

Got this youngster through the window.

European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) Also known as the Common Starling. Breeding plumage. Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge, Chambers County, Texas, USA. Gulf Coast Prairies and Marshes Vegetational Area. Around the pavilion and trailhead to the willows.

Imported against his will, thriving nevertheless, and now quite unwelcome.