The BIRD Problem

I made a thread a while back about the bird problem we have at my work. Thousands and Thousands of Starlings roost in the Teeny Tiny patch of woods behind the store every night. Here are some pictures...... Keep in mind this is only a small section of the sky. These birds fill up about a square mile when they are flying around.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...9/IMGA0314.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...9/IMGA0315.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...9/IMGA0316.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...9/IMGA0317.jpg

Wow, that's a lotta birds. :eek: At my mom's work they hire someone to catch them and release them somewhere else, but honestly, I don't really think that helps, the birds will return. :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by GreyhoundGirl

Wow, that's a lotta birds. :eek: At my mom's work they hire someone to catch them and release them somewhere else, but honestly, I don't really think that helps, the birds will return. :rolleyes:

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yes these particular birds have been coming here for 5 years. They come in October and stay until around March.

:eek: WOW! That is a lot of birds!! I guess you better walk with a unbrella around that many birds!

Just be glad you don't have the bird problem we have at our training center in OK.

Similar numbers, but they congregate at night in the trees in the courtyard of the hotel!

Makes having a "quiet" drink outside after class a difficult proposition.

Wow that is just BEAUTIFUL! :D

I would love to be there watching as the starlings get to know each other in flight, they also fly like this to get a flight pattern like canada geese have a V shape when in flight, yes there are alot but I love all birds over populated or not, starlings around here sometimes meow like cats or honk like cars as they have a talking ability.

Great photo's.

sadly a man made event Starlings are a invasive species to the US.

I think it's a common thing even with native species in Sacramento it was crows all over down town and in Texas it was Grackles in San Antonio. Scared me the first night I heard them setting off booms to scare them off.

We have that problem here too, only with crows...They stay at a park. People complain about the noise they make, and their droppings. Apperintly people have gone to their cars in the morning to find it completely covered with bird droppings. Ick

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Originally Posted by Lady's Human

Just be glad you don't have the bird problem we have at our training center in OK.

Similar numbers, but they congregate at night in the trees in the courtyard of the hotel!

Makes having a "quiet" drink outside after class a difficult proposition.

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LOL Oh we do have that problem. They roost at night in the "woods" behind the store. This is the teeniest tiniest patch of woods. there are so many birds that when they finally settle into the trees it looks like the trees are in full bloom with leaves. There are just so many and they make a God Awful Racket. Not to mention the constant stink. they smell so bad and it gives you a headache.

The only down part is there over population does bother people & there realy is no other way to keep the population down other than shooting the poor things, but then again you can increase the falcon & hawk population then hopefuly the starlings numbers will go down ... I would say an average hawk can eat about 4 to 5 of those birds a day .. yeah I hate the thought of a hawk tearing apart a starling but then again it's more natural so I won't have to be mad at the humans.

I didn't know crows where over populated :/

I see at least 1 to 3 crows every few days flying by ... I wish there where more around as I can make an excact crow call ^_^, yeah sounds weird but when I make it all the crows stop by my house and listen to me lol, maybe it's just because the Crow/Raven is my native totem.

Too bad they just can't send a couple of crows over to Toronto. ;) :p :D

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Originally Posted by Argranade

The only down part is there over population does bother people & there realy is no other way to keep the population down other than shooting the poor things, but then again you can increase the falcon & hawk population then hopefuly the starlings numbers will go down ... I would say an average hawk can eat about 4 to 5 of those birds a day .. yeah I hate the thought of a hawk tearing apart a starling but then again it's more natural so I won't have to be mad at the humans.

I didn't know crows where over populated :/

I see at least 1 to 3 crows every few days flying by ... I wish there where more around as I can make an excact crow call ^_^, yeah sounds weird but when I make it all the crows stop by my house and listen to me lol, maybe it's just because the Crow/Raven is my native totem.

Too bad they just can't send a couple of crows over to Toronto. ;) :p :D

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Go to Kanata (Ottawa) & stand at the Hazeldean Mall at about 7am & wait. You will see thousands of crows leaving the woods across the way. Its crazy!!

In the neighbourhood I lived in there would be atleast 10 crows in the trees in our back yard. They would distroy the garden, eat the song birds, push squirrles out of the trees & then scream at the top of their lungs when you would go outside. My ex shot them all & shot any crow that came into range. After that we had our couple hundred Cardenals (sp) back in the bushes & I assume nesting near by. Our area was free of the crows for many years, cause they are very smart birds. You just have to kill a couple in the flock & the rest stay away & tell the others to stay away too. Which was good cause I hated it when he shot them.

In Smiths Falls the crows dive bomb dogs.. or atleast the did that to my old dog.

It is starling nature to congregate in huge flocks like that. For safety in numbers as well as warmth.

Starlings are actually interesting birds. People have a bad view of them, because a lot of people think they eat crops, since you can see huge flocks of them descending on fields. But actually, starlings are insectivores. So, what they are actually doing is eating the insects that are on the crops. They are actually quite benificial birds.

I used to have a pet starling. He had a vocabulary of hundreds of words. Starlings pick up words and sounds all on their own, you don't have to teach them through repetition. They are incredibly smart birds. They are in the corvid family, like crows, ravens and mynah birds.

My starling would imitate talk radio shows, having long dialogs with himself in two different "voices". He would start each "program" by fluffing up his feathers, getting comfy on his perch and saying, "National Public Radio. This is Talk of the Nation". Then he would babble for a minute or so in one "voice", then switch to another "voice" to answer, etc. It was hilarious! No one taught him this, he just picked it up from me having the radio on.

He also could tell the dogs apart by their barks, just like I can. So when Queenie barked, he would yell - in a PERFECT imitation of my voice, "Queenie! No bark!" Same for every dog - he knew all their barks and their names. The dogs quieted down for the bird just like they did for me.

Has anyone seen the movie The Birds? :eek:

:eek: damn! that's a lot of birds! :eek:

Yo! BOIDS! :D

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Originally Posted by Argranade

The only down part is there over population does bother people & there realy is no other way to keep the population down other than shooting the poor things, but then again you can increase the falcon & hawk population then hopefuly the starlings numbers will go down ... I would say an average hawk can eat about 4 to 5 of those birds a day .. yeah I hate the thought of a hawk tearing apart a starling but then again it's more natural so I won't have to be mad at the humans.

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It's not that we want them killed. we just want them to find a new roosting place. You really wouldn't believe the stench, it is overpowering. We are trying to get the township to set up those cannon things that send out noise every so often.

We have a bunch of cats that live in those woods too so the cats eat the birds, but there aren't enough cats to contend with a swarm that size. We have lots of hawks and other large birds in the area but seriously they cannot contend with the thousands upon THOUSANDS of starlings that are there everyday.

They are also going to cause an accident because people just have to stare at the swarm flying overhead instead of watching the road. When will people learn you can't drive and look up at the sky.

There are several houses in the area as well and they are just covered in bird poop.

It is neat to watch but these birds are not in the least bit sanitary and it isn't exactly a safe haven area for the birds either, with all the transport trucks that go through the area and other such things. We find dead birds all the time. We have probably seen 10 so far and that doesn't include any that might have died in the woods.

I saw a story that they use border collies at certain airports to run off the birds. The birds, worried about a predator, eventually leaves. Hmm...

they weren't shooting the birds in TX they were setting off big booming fire works and if you went outside could see them flash too. They were trying to scare them away from roosting on their buildings but don't think it really works.

The way I remember it explained about the crows wasn't so much they were over populated because they all disperse during the day but they choose to roost together in the man made city sanctuary and make a royal mess. Where as if the city wasn't there they would still do so but in smaller groups. But they are probably some over populated in those areas because of all the trash people make for them to feast on.

Know what's gross when people shoot crows then eat them,

Also if your religiouse or anything I was reading the bible about what animals & birds you can & can not eat .. well crows/ravens are birds you should not eat, I geuss because it's considered unclean as they clean the earth of dead flesh but they where used for good by dlivering food to that man in the bible .. but that's another story. ^_^