Specie's Page                                               Garden and Hedgerow - European Starling

Common Starling:

UK Status: Resident.

Habitat: This bird is a familiar sight to most of us, it can be found almost any where in the UK. On the coast, farmland, urban and suburban sites, in fact any where there is a food supply. They eat insects, invertebrates, fruits and berries, and food discarded by humans. After the first or second brood chicks have fledged, I can stand in my garage and hear the pitter patter of tiny feet. When we put food on the roof, there can be as many as a hundred to two hundred birds, it sounds like heavy rain. They also do a great job of clearing out all the moss and debris from the houses rain guttering, although a bit messy.

Breeding: Nests are flimsy cups made of straw and dried grass, lined with moss, to protect the eggs. They choose redundant chimney pots, holes in walls, hollow tree trunks, so nesting material is minimal. They lay three two five  pale blue eggs, and there can be two, or occasionally three broods a year.

Comment: This Although seen in large groups (called murmurations) in the evening sky, there decline in numbers in recent decades is of great concern. These birds are widely distributed throughout the British Isles, being a bit thin in the Scottish Highlands, and generally absent in the Welsh Mountains in the late autumn, and through the winter months. They leave their nesting sites in autumn in favour of communal roosting in reed beds, under seaside piers and jetties. Starlings are very gregarious, and can be extremely noisy.