Your Comments - European Starling (CA)

I was away from home for a week, and when I came back, a Starling had taken a liking to my grill on my deck. This was back on May 20th, 2006. There are five eggs that I saw as I opened the grill, before I realized what was there. Nothing was harmed or touched, and the bird is still hanging around, and flys out of the grill if I walk onto the deck. It is now June 13th, and the eggs still have not hatched.

My question is this, when is it safe to say that these eggs are not going to hatch? I'd hate to evict the bird, if the eggs are close to hatching, but I'd really like to use my grill this summer!

Will the bird abandon the nest if I move it?

Any responses will be greatly appreciated!

Terri

Yep, they've fledged...so the next question is, what are the plans for the cameras/nestbox?

We'll leave it up while we construct and get ready to install a red-tail hawk platform/camera. If we get more starlings, we will take it down for the season. If we get something else (keep your fingers crossed, but it's very late in the season), we'll let them stay. We'll probably try to relocate this nestbox closer to the house and on some sort of purple martin-type pole (that allows one to lower and service it easily via a winch), so we may get western bluebirds or something like that (and we won't allow any more starlings to nest).

We'll be putting the red-tail platform up where the nestbox is now...watch the website for details in the next few weeks. We have red-tails aplenty here...we see them every day, over the hill on which the nestbox is located, hunting. In fact, there are some good pics of some of them in the photos section of the website.

We're also constructing a bathouse with camera, so watch for that, too...

It's been an interesting, if frustrating, year. I appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions.

Ranger Steve

It is 10;46 MOUNTAIN TIME June 3, the nest box looks empty. It is sad and happy at this time. The babies grow up so fast and then they are gone, as is the way it is suppost to be. Even tho they are an invasive Bird, they are still a wonderful little life to watch. thank you for allowing them to be born and grow. Nanc

I don't see them anymore, it looks like the fledged.

Despite their status as non-native species, I've enjoyed watching the starlings. It has been an educational experience for me. Thanks.

I know the people behind this site are trying to conserve native species, in trying to evict the starlings, but the way the starling searched in vain for the first egg for 10 minutes after egg and nest were removed-THIS BROKE MY HEART! Please don't remove the nest or eggs but let them live!

If this invasive species looked just like a hummingbird or another extremely beautiful bird, but had the exact same behavioural patterns as a starling- Would there be this much ado about 'ridding' of the bird?

After reading all comments, I have to say that I believe in letting nature take its course.I'm not a fan of starlings as I watch them fight constantly and noisely over the two suet cakes I put out for the woodpeckers (Downy and Red Bellied).They decimate a cake in 1 day.BUT,they nest nearby and bring the fledglings to our yard.It is interesting to watch the fledglings curiousity and attempts by the mother to teach them to feed on their own,including the suet.We learn from ALL birds.

It looks like we have baby starlings on the way!!!
I for one was all for leaving them alone and let them breed I think the Starlings are very funny birds to watch I buy suet covered peanuts just for them It is funny to watch them fight over it!!!

For your 1st May photo you Wrote:

"May 1 - European Starlings show no sexual dimorphism, meaning that male and female look exactly alike, making it impossible to tell them apart in the nest."

Ah, but they do and it is particularly noticable during the breeding season and the summer! The colour of the fleshy part at the base of their bills differs in between the sexes. In the male birds it is greyish blue in colour while for the females it is pink. Also, but less easily noticed, the females have paler brown eyes and are spottier than the males. The males also tend to have a slightly shaggy "beard" under their throats.

For a European it is quite nice to see that starlings are doing well somewhere. There numbers have declined considerably in the UK and in other parts of Europe. In parts of the UK they are under pressure from one of our invasive species. The Ring-necked Parakeet (Psittacula krameri), an escaped pet originally from India, has taken to the now milder UK climate, particularly in parts of SE England. Its numbers have increased remarkably in recent years. It is also a tree-hole nester but starts its season a little earlier than the starling. The poor starlings are finding that by the time they start looking for somewhere to nest all the best sites are taken.

Mike

In one photo I saw it appeared as if she/he was eating one of the eggs??
Anyone one got the same picture???

Thanks,

Are you going to let the eggs hatch?

What is the incubation period of the european starling and how long would it take before they fledge?

What I would do is take 2 or 3 eggs out and leave the remaining ones to hatch. This way you are not getting rid of the whole clutch but controlling the population. Even better take them all out!! This is what I did with my Starling pair that took the box away from the our Flicker pair this year!!!!

I was wondering what your job was.Are you a park ranger? Because you seem to know alot about wildlife.

The video server went down this morning, and I didn't find out until I got to my office, so I can't reboot it until I get home this evening. My apologies!

Ranger Steve

I have just read all the comments on this subject. Ranger Steve, you definetely have a problem & issue w/ the starlings and the monitoring of the box. Why not bring the box down then using a fine pointed needle, etc, puncture each Starling egg. This way she will incubate the eggs but they will never hatch. Another trick is to remove the eggs and refrigerate them and then put them back in the box.[this will mean bringing down the box 2X] Both of these methods will keep them occupied without increasing the population w/ more troublesome birds! Works for House Sparrows too! Sue ~^/^~

Ranger steve i know your not going to remove the nest,but just think what you said about there being alot of starlings around.If you let the starlings continue there young will go off to invaide more cavitys around your area.Why just say for get about and let the starlings continue,no ranger stave you need to handle this matter in a mature way and remove the starling nest.Stop adding more invasive birds to the fragil eco system.

I'm not a starling fan, and I hope to get a chance to see some kestrels someday, but this whole ordeal has been somewhat educational. No wonder they have taken over the U S. What tenacious and prolific egg layers! I hope the kestrels stop by and take over.

I want to address some of the posts asking me to take out this nest attempt.

We attempted to "remove" the starlings, and that failed (and there are dozens of them around, anyway). We took the nest material and egg out, and they came right back.

We've heard from experts that kestrels would be unlikely to have a problem evicting starlings on their own.

But the biggest issue is that the nestbox is one gigantic pain in the you-know-what to take down and clean out. It takes two pretty strong guys to lower it, it takes quite a bit of time involving unhooking stuff, etc. Essentially, as it's configured now, it's a "remote" nestbox that just can't be easily maintained. (If we try this again next year, we'll try to mount it on one of those purple martin nestbox poles with a winch so it can be easily lowered...although we're leaning towards a red-tailed hawk platform for next year).

I know a lot people are insistent that we clean out this nest attempt, but rest assured that there are as many people letting me know that they think we should let it stay.

So, as much as I'd *like* to remove the nest and eggs, it's just not a workable option on a continuous basis (and would be unlikely to succeed, anyway). Yes, this is sort of a violation of our principles, but in a benign way (letting things proceed as opposed to killing birds or eggs).

And, lastly, we've heard from a few people who had starlings nest in their nestbox, only to be depredated by kestrels (that is, the starlings actually attracted the kestrels, who then used the nestbox).

If worse comes to worse, and no kestrels appear, and the starlings go for a second nesting attempt, we'll take the whole thing down and shut it down for the season. But for now, we're content to just let things play out this year.

Ranger Steve

get rid of the starling nest! starlings carry disease, take over nest cavities, and reproduce easily. they are also a very abundant introduced species. i say eliminate them now!

Just FYI, if the daytime (color) images are dim on occasion, it's because it's overcast or cloudy and there's not enough light filtering in through the translucent cap on top of the nestbox.

Steve

I understand that the boxes were set up to attract certain species. I do not understand why the links continue to advertise the wanted species and not the resident species. Who wants to go to a site advertising kestrals and get presented with starlings instead? If you succeed in attracting kestrals but all means change the name back when that happens.

I removed my starling nest and their one egg today. The Flickers are really getting aggresive towards them and will probally drive them away.....

Logan

The starling is building another nest! Argh...

Let me reiterate something here...folks have commented about starlings and roaches and who knows what else needing homes, too, and others have come out on the "remove them" side. We generally accept any and all species anywhere on our property, and that includes the nestbox, with a few caveats and limitations.

1) Native species only; invasive species are removed if feasible.
2) They have the whole outdoors to live, play, hunt, procreate and die in; use it. Crossing the threshold to the interior of our denning space usually results in "removal", and it doesn't matter what kind of animal it is (we try for humane methods first, but will resort to lethal control, provided it's environmentally friendly).
3) Assuming conditions 1) and 2) are met, we attempt to maintain a hands-off, non-intervention policy; if you're familiar with last year's attempt, when the male was depredated, you'll know that we did absolutely nothing to interfere, and the clutch was lost.

Any species of animal is free to use the nestbox, provided they're a native species; what happens then is up to nature, not to us!

Ranger Steve

My Starlings layed their egg to day too. But they are not very good parents. They did not lay on the egg once today....And the Flickers will destroy it.

Logan

We removed the nest and the egg. The starling returned within about 10 minutes, and has been digging through the new shavings looking for the egg.

I'll post pictures of the next and egg on the website and send some to CLO to add to today's archives.

Ranger Steve

If I were you I would throw the nest out. We already have toom any Starlings.

The female is roosting in the nestbox now, so that means clutch initiation will be very soon. Once that happens, we will "serve notice of eviction" and remove the nest. Then, we'll see what happens after that!

Ranger Steve

You should let the starlings build there nest so we viewers could see a pair of starlings under take in nest building ,and then remove the nest.Besides no one ever get to see starlings build there nest in such detail.

I just captured a picture of something in the nest box. It is now 10:50 am in CA. Anyone else see it?

We've had a possible woodpecker, a probable Northern Flicker, and this starling investigate the box. There are also kestrels in the local area now (observed on several occasions recently). We'll hope the starlings move on, and we get a kestrel, woodpecker, flicker or maybe even a Western Bluebird (we've seen those, too).

Ranger Steve

European starlings need homes too!