Bird Sitting - Harper The Starling

[Argranade]

Harper is a baby starling that belongs to the breeder that I know.

He's growing very fast & will actualy follow me around when I take him out.

I'm watching & feeding him while his mom is away at NYC.

Here's his photos.

[Hellow]

Awwwww, he is sooo cute! Tweet! Tweet! He wants a treat lol!

[Kalei]

Aw, its so nice of you to look after this little bird. She and the owner will be so greatful.

[Twisterdog]

Awwwww! Starlings have a special place in my heart. I've raised and released several, and ended up with one imprinted pet that wouldn't leave. His name was Little Bird, and he lived in my living room, where he learned to sing dozens of songs and say hundreds of words and phrases, all on his own. They are extremely smart, funny birds.

[Callie]

Well, I have rescued a few starlings in my time from cats etc in the neighborhood BUT there's another side to their story, too.

They're not native to the USA. They were imported from England to control some caterpillar (if I recall correctly) by some stupid scientists (they didn't test for environmental impact before release).

The starlings have several nasty habits that are having a devastating effect on our native song birds. They lay their eggs in other bird nests. When the young hatch they are larger, stronger, and crowd and starve out the other (native song bird) nestlings. There is also evidence emerging that they have such voracious appetites that they exhaust the song bird parents so they do not produce as many offspring and die off early.

They tend to gather in large flocks and the racket they make is deafening sometimes, not to mention the impact they make on the environment otherwise. They are very aggressive birds that tend to take over an area in short order.

Just wanted to balance the information scale a bit in favor of protecting our song birds that add so much to our lives in color and in song, not to mention controlling a variety of pests.

Callie

[Argranade]

I never heard of them laying in other nests,

There very good parents, cowbirds are a bigger threat to songbirds than starlings. They ALWAYS lay there eggs in other birds nests, I seen it done a few days ago ... a female cowbird wen't into this tree & climbed into the nest to lay some eggs while the male cowbird just sang on the top of the tree lol.

I would love an albino or pied starling, there's some breeders.

They can indeed make awsome pets. ^ ^''

[Twisterdog]

They're not native to the USA. They were imported from England to control some caterpillar (if I recall correctly) by some stupid scientists (they didn't test for environmental impact before release).

Close, but not exactly. Starlings were actually imported to the US by a Shakespear book club. They wanted every species of bird that was ever mentioned in Shakespear's works to live in Central Park in New York City. They brought over 80 starlings from England, and the rest is history.

The starlings have several nasty habits that are having a devastating effect on our native song birds. They lay their eggs in other bird nests. When the young hatch they are larger, stronger, and crowd and starve out the other (native song bird) nestlings. There is also evidence emerging that they have such voracious appetites that they exhaust the song bird parents so they do not produce as many offspring and die off early.

Starlings do not lay their eggs in other birds nests. Cowbirds and cuckoos do this, among other species, I'm sure, but starlings do not. They DO take over the nests of bluebirds, holes in tree trunks. But they raise their own babies.

Starlings do indeed gather in huge flocks, and can be quite noisy. They are insectivores, though, and they eat HUGE numbers of insects when they are flying in those huge flocks.

They have their good and bad points, like any species. They are not a native species, true, but neither is a house sparrow actually ... the most common bird in the US. And they are here to stay, being quite intelligent and prolific.

They do make WONDERFUL pets, despite anything else.