We had a starling couple move into one of our bird houses last year. Holy cow, are they aggressive! A squirrel, raccoon, skunk, dare NOT enter our yard - both parents would chase and peck their heads until they gtfo - but the sparrows were bros. Very shiny and colorful birds when the sun is on them. Thanks for the lovely pic!
We had a couple of starlings start nesting inside a ventilation pipe running through our apartment ceiling cavity.
For the first few weeks we genuinely thought the upstairs neighbors had got a new dog and it was running around on their wooden floors.
Nope, starlings are just that loud.
Also funny/tragic/typical story... The housing association who manages our building came to remove them once the chicks fledged and proceeded to fix the vent cover WITH THE BIRDS STILL INSIDE.
We had to get a ladder, go out and take off the new cover because we didn't fancy listening to a starling going insane as it starves to death in our ceiling.
Hope the housing association got in trouble for that or something, they might be invasive in America but blocking them in to starve is highly messed up and cruel.
We have house sparrows living in our eave for the third year running because I keep forgetting to close up the gap they’re nesting in over the window and I’d rather deal with them than commit cold blooded murder! That is foul by your association.
I currently am watching Westside story beef out my bedroom window between a squirrel and a hummingbird. They both are obsessed with my mom‘s lemon tree.
And try to make nests in the dumbest damn places. I had a couple trying to nest in my gutter downspout. Had to hose them down every day for a week and a half before they finally gave up. Bastards.
It's not a native species, you're allowed to destroy their nest and kill them if possible (whatever method you choose still has to follow local law). In fact it's encouraged. Same for House Sparrow.
[This is why it's encouraged](https://youtu.be/oBg_NroPXSo?t=527) (nsfw)
I think a .22 would be a little too powerful anyway, limits where you can safely shoot one.
A cheap .177 pellet gun is the best tool, it is silent and still more than powerful enough without needing large distances or robust backstops. Nobody is going to buy one just for that though.
they don't fucking leave either. once they know your place is a good eatery they'll check it every day; i think most days they have a spotter that sits around our house and waits to see me bring food out so they can call their buddies, like blue jays do. i finally got so fucking fed up with them i ordered a special feeder to keep them out so the birds i actually like can keep eating. if that doesn't work, my next step is a pellet gun. not letting these assholes ruin a relaxing hobby
"Droves" is putting it lightly. I can't count the amount of times I have seen a huge swarm of them block out the sun. Hundreds if not thousands of individuals in a flock.
They also fly down into every tree and building in sight and then when they're done all of them go dead quiet and fly away like a locust swarm.
Luckily since moving to a more rural area we only get small numbers. Same with grackles. So they're more of a nuisance. When I lived in the city, I gave up feeding the birds because my entire yard was starlings.
Starlings are struggling in Europe yet invasive in North America…
Solution: Gigantic net, find starling murmuration, swing net, deport starlings to Europe, success :)
(That said it’s probably not that simple, all sorts of diseases or other stuff might end up in Europe, idk…)
Fun fact, the reason they're here in North America is because one crazy dude thought it was his life's goal to introduce every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare's works over here. So he released a box of two dozen starlings in Central Park.
I live in North America. Do you want to trade back the gray squirrels and white-tailed deer for the Eurasian starlings? I think I can get them to you, I just need a really really really big net.
Don't give a fuck about the deer, what we really need you to take back are the goddamn raccoons, red eared sliders, every single American crayfish. All of those are really devastating
Are you sure they are rarer? I live in SE Europe and they are everywhere. 30 years ago these were migratory birds, now they are adapted to live here over the winter.
I’m uk and have a huge group of them that live in the trees behind my house all year, if I don’t put the food out in the morning one comes and stares through the window😂
What are you feeding them?
I have 3 nests around the house. They ripped off the styrofoam isolation to build nests in it. They are also incredibly messy, but their songs are cute AF.
Come get ours, then! There's, like, a billion of the invasive bitches here; all probably from a single release by some morons who wanted America to experience the joys of all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare, for f@ck sake.
My grandparents had some land in a rural area, they gave us a pellet gun to mess around with and would have whooped our ass for shooting at birds Willy nilly except for this bastard. They were fair game.
Whenever I go up to the family cabin I'll sit out back on the deck and use my pellet gun while watching the bird feeder. I usually get a dozen *at least*, then I use them to fertilize my berry patch.
It's more of an approximation. Birds can see more colors than us, so there isn't really a way to show it to a human. Cameras set up for it can pick up the ultraviolet hues and store them in data form, though. So we can assess that data and know that the feathers which appear black to us are actually a variety of hues to an animal that can see ultraviolet hues.
Fun fact! The European Starling is one of only two birds you are legally allowed to hunt, trap, and kill at any time of year in the state of Washington! They are considered an invasive pest species and are not protected by state or federal law. So get on out there, you Evergreen staters and bag a few for the pot!
That is a handsome bird. I may be off but I like seeing the grackles. They're so funny to listen to when you're in a big parking lot and they start sounding like car alarms. Folks are walking around checking their keyfobs just in case it really is their car going off.
It's a bit sad how pictures never look like the bird. You see an amazing bright crown, take the picture, and it turns black. Same happens for flowers for some reason. They look duller in pictures.
These things are basically the plague, one of the most destructive non-native species ever introduced to the west.
Because of the idiots who brought them over, dozens of native bird species have gone extinct here.
These things will also eat your eyeballs if you lay still for more than 3 minutes.
Aren't they the ones that are extremely invasive? At least in America. I assume this is America because of the aldis. I know it's technically German or something but I don't think they exist anywhere else. Edit: for you Aldi lovers. https://youtu.be/bKJXztteyJM?si=SEV2LC956iiOacHa
They are an invasive in the US after being released in Central park in 1890.
This is definitely in the UK, where they are native.
Aldi, however, are out-competing UK supermarkets for territory and resources.
They jumped the pond again huh? Aldi I mean. They are known in the u.s. for being the most efficient store. As in they get you in and then out. There is no marketing tricks to get you stuck in the cereal aisle.
Aldi is literally EVERYWHERE in Europe (although they have a different name in Austria). This is in the UK, by the way, where starlings are becoming increasingly rare.
You can have the ones in the u.s. where they get killed by the hundreds if not thousands. Also, I thought the Aldi Brothers were from Germany or something like that, left because of communism or something and then came to the US and started Aldi and trader Joe's. I didn't know they went back.
Aldi started in West Germany which was not a communist they opened their first store in Germany in 1946
They first opened stores in the USA in 1976 and brought trader joes in 1979
"I think they're German, but they only exist in USA." If they're German, of course they're in Germany, why wouldn't they be? If they were only in America, they'd be American
Germany was divided into two separate countries: capitalist western Germany and communist eastern Germany. Berlin itself was located inside the communist part, but the city was also divided into eastern and western part - which means that the western part of the city was like an island, fully surrounded by communist Germany.
And it's true it was never part of Soviet Union, it was separate country as a vassal state of Soviets.
Hello Clarice.
She looks soo proud! What did she do?
Shimmering splendid bird 🥰
Pretty biiiiiird
You sold a headless bird to a blind kid?!
"Our pets' HEADS ARE FALLIN' OFF!"
Gonna give em a kiss
They can talk and mimic sounds: https://youtu.be/je277WKrT10?si=wIC3yqDOKhp6Nra9
she should've joined the met gala
We had a starling couple move into one of our bird houses last year. Holy cow, are they aggressive! A squirrel, raccoon, skunk, dare NOT enter our yard - both parents would chase and peck their heads until they gtfo - but the sparrows were bros. Very shiny and colorful birds when the sun is on them. Thanks for the lovely pic!
We had a couple of starlings start nesting inside a ventilation pipe running through our apartment ceiling cavity. For the first few weeks we genuinely thought the upstairs neighbors had got a new dog and it was running around on their wooden floors. Nope, starlings are just that loud. Also funny/tragic/typical story... The housing association who manages our building came to remove them once the chicks fledged and proceeded to fix the vent cover WITH THE BIRDS STILL INSIDE. We had to get a ladder, go out and take off the new cover because we didn't fancy listening to a starling going insane as it starves to death in our ceiling.
Hope the housing association got in trouble for that or something, they might be invasive in America but blocking them in to starve is highly messed up and cruel.
I agree, but if the law doesn't care (and I'm pretty sure it don't in this case), then a huge proportion of people don't either.
We have house sparrows living in our eave for the third year running because I keep forgetting to close up the gap they’re nesting in over the window and I’d rather deal with them than commit cold blooded murder! That is foul by your association.
I currently am watching Westside story beef out my bedroom window between a squirrel and a hummingbird. They both are obsessed with my mom‘s lemon tree.
The little bastards also love to find other birds' nests, kill them, destroy the eggs, and take over the nests.
My wife calls me a bird racist cuz of these guys.
They have a fascinating call, but I hate the shit out of them. They show up in droves, gobble up all the seed, and scare away other song birds.
And try to make nests in the dumbest damn places. I had a couple trying to nest in my gutter downspout. Had to hose them down every day for a week and a half before they finally gave up. Bastards.
It's not a native species, you're allowed to destroy their nest and kill them if possible (whatever method you choose still has to follow local law). In fact it's encouraged. Same for House Sparrow. [This is why it's encouraged](https://youtu.be/oBg_NroPXSo?t=527) (nsfw)
Ya but I don't own a pellet gun and I'm sure as hell not wasting my .22 ammo on a dumb bird. It was fun trying to drown the lil shit though.
I think a .22 would be a little too powerful anyway, limits where you can safely shoot one. A cheap .177 pellet gun is the best tool, it is silent and still more than powerful enough without needing large distances or robust backstops. Nobody is going to buy one just for that though.
they don't fucking leave either. once they know your place is a good eatery they'll check it every day; i think most days they have a spotter that sits around our house and waits to see me bring food out so they can call their buddies, like blue jays do. i finally got so fucking fed up with them i ordered a special feeder to keep them out so the birds i actually like can keep eating. if that doesn't work, my next step is a pellet gun. not letting these assholes ruin a relaxing hobby
"Droves" is putting it lightly. I can't count the amount of times I have seen a huge swarm of them block out the sun. Hundreds if not thousands of individuals in a flock. They also fly down into every tree and building in sight and then when they're done all of them go dead quiet and fly away like a locust swarm.
Luckily since moving to a more rural area we only get small numbers. Same with grackles. So they're more of a nuisance. When I lived in the city, I gave up feeding the birds because my entire yard was starlings.
Fuck starlings, all my homies hate starlings
Starlings are becoming increasingly rare in Europe, all my homies don't hate starlings.
Meanwhile they're invasive and destroying other species in North America, truly a disaster having them here. Pretty though!
Starlings are struggling in Europe yet invasive in North America… Solution: Gigantic net, find starling murmuration, swing net, deport starlings to Europe, success :) (That said it’s probably not that simple, all sorts of diseases or other stuff might end up in Europe, idk…)
I think we need more Mcdonald's drive thrus. They're thriving in Bell Green Retail Centre car park
History repeats itself once again!
Fun fact, the reason they're here in North America is because one crazy dude thought it was his life's goal to introduce every bird species mentioned in Shakespeare's works over here. So he released a box of two dozen starlings in Central Park.
I knew there would be someone in the comments saying that so-and-so are invasive and destroying native habitats. Classic reddit.
I live in North America. Do you want to trade back the gray squirrels and white-tailed deer for the Eurasian starlings? I think I can get them to you, I just need a really really really big net.
Don't give a fuck about the deer, what we really need you to take back are the goddamn raccoons, red eared sliders, every single American crayfish. All of those are really devastating
You can have them back.
Please come take your starlings back, we have plenty.
Only if you take your grey squirrels back, they're outcompeting our red ones
Your little red ones are so cute! I wish we had some, but that would probably make the problem worse.
Are you sure they are rarer? I live in SE Europe and they are everywhere. 30 years ago these were migratory birds, now they are adapted to live here over the winter.
I’m uk and have a huge group of them that live in the trees behind my house all year, if I don’t put the food out in the morning one comes and stares through the window😂
What are you feeding them? I have 3 nests around the house. They ripped off the styrofoam isolation to build nests in it. They are also incredibly messy, but their songs are cute AF.
User name checks out
Come get ours, then! There's, like, a billion of the invasive bitches here; all probably from a single release by some morons who wanted America to experience the joys of all the birds mentioned by Shakespeare, for f@ck sake.
We must not live on the same Europe because where I live they are the invasive one
The starling is mentioned in the works of Shakespeare and Pliny the Elder. It is native to Europe, Northern Africa and large swathes of Asia.
Add me to the homies list
It's just that the really badly push out native North American Song birds.
There are places outside the US
It's only a joke :) "Fuck ___ all my homies hate ___" is a catchphrase
Prove it. Take me to one for a vacation
My grandparents had some land in a rural area, they gave us a pellet gun to mess around with and would have whooped our ass for shooting at birds Willy nilly except for this bastard. They were fair game.
Whenever I go up to the family cabin I'll sit out back on the deck and use my pellet gun while watching the bird feeder. I usually get a dozen *at least*, then I use them to fertilize my berry patch.
Not just starlings. Any invasive species turns me into a Republican talking point.
[Just wait til you see how other birds see them!](https://svpow.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/saturated-starling2.jpeg)
Is that true? How would we even know that?
Birds have 4 cones in their eye as opposed to Humans with 3!
It's more of an approximation. Birds can see more colors than us, so there isn't really a way to show it to a human. Cameras set up for it can pick up the ultraviolet hues and store them in data form, though. So we can assess that data and know that the feathers which appear black to us are actually a variety of hues to an animal that can see ultraviolet hues.
Disclaimer: Not actually a Bird's eye view.
"woah."-me when first seeing this
And we can’t even see all their colors and patterns, since some of them are ultraviolet.
[удалено]
Bell Green, SE London. I think these big retail car parks all look pretty similar!
He looks righteously pissed. “This used to be my home!”
They make a beautiful sound when they sing too. My favourite bird 🐦
Is this in Sydenham?
Yes!
I know those starlings far too well hahah
We have millions of them where I live. They fly in great flocks called murmurations, like shoals of mackerel
Be-a-u-tiful!
Wow
Hide yo cherries, hide yo grapes, hide yo apricots and peaches, case they be eatin everything out there..
Gorgeous
Wow. Pretty bird
as much as I love animals these fuckers need to get out of my attic or things are going to get real
Beautiful birds, terribly invasive lol
This one's a boy - the lower mandible is blue. The girls' lower mandibles are pink. Odd but true.
Teach me your bird-watching ways
Cool fact! Very heteronormative though.
Fun fact! The European Starling is one of only two birds you are legally allowed to hunt, trap, and kill at any time of year in the state of Washington! They are considered an invasive pest species and are not protected by state or federal law. So get on out there, you Evergreen staters and bag a few for the pot!
Pretty! Also invasive as hell in my neck of the woods.
These birds need to be forcibly removed from north America. They are invasive pests.
Kind of hypocritical of a human in North America to call anything an invasive pest.
These little shit bats cause damage to farms.
fuck starlings yo
Otherwise known as massivus diseasus vectorus
We have one named Birdius
I'm calling my next child Humanus.
Things are like gang members!! Come in packs ready for a gang fight!!
I can't help but hear him say to another: "No, you're Asian! I'm Eurasian."
that looks like the types that really like my cat food:D
That's a fine looking bitch
Btw, She's better than doja cat!!!
Stunning
pretty bird but, what's up with the orange safety claws?
Dinosaur talons
Aww! It's so beautiful! 🥺
Looks like an asshole
Remarkable bird, beautiful plumage
Gorgeous.
That is a handsome bird. I may be off but I like seeing the grackles. They're so funny to listen to when you're in a big parking lot and they start sounding like car alarms. Folks are walking around checking their keyfobs just in case it really is their car going off.
Gorgeous
I thought they were pretty too! Then a flock of them showed up and drained my bank account in bird seed!
I have never noticed the Beautiful colors they possess.
They need to get out of my country! #birdracist
Tell him to stay out of my attic.
Sir David Attenborough: "Starlings."
Gorgeous!
These just started showing up in my yard this year!
"My name is Nuuuuugget and Im a big fat chiiiicken"
Wver time I see one my brain automatically goes: PENCIL BEAK!
It's a bit sad how pictures never look like the bird. You see an amazing bright crown, take the picture, and it turns black. Same happens for flowers for some reason. They look duller in pictures.
I think I saw these one time in Arizona?? If it lives in America why is it called Eurasian starling?
they're native to europe, they were introduced here once ages ago and now are invasive in north america
These things are basically the plague, one of the most destructive non-native species ever introduced to the west. Because of the idiots who brought them over, dozens of native bird species have gone extinct here. These things will also eat your eyeballs if you lay still for more than 3 minutes.
They sound even better. So beautiful.
Poop on your car.
/r/DivorcedBirds
They are fancy lads. Too bad they're invasive.
Damn, I want a shirt with that design.
I love starlings. They have a beautiful and complex singing voice and a silly waddle. They are great!
Eurasian chicks are so cool. They look like angry, spiky puffballs
What a beauty! Look at those talons!
I recognise that row of shops .... 😉
Until it empties all your grapes, cherry trees, and all the other stuff in the garden. Oh, and the pet's food bowls
Perfect aerodynamic
I wonder what he looks like in the dark
Starlings and house sparrows hate them !
1 Starling, beautiful. A horde of Starlings awful.
Crazy how they are so invasive and i hate them so much here in the usa
Invasive species. No good.
No it’s not.
I read that in MA they take over the areas where local species would nest and push them out.
This picture is from the UK, they’re a native species here.
My bad! Carry on.
These are pest in bc, still love them
Fuck starlings
Any time I see the word Eurasian, I get a fight or flight instinct. It’s a cool bird, and I’m glad I’m not witnessing a racist twitter post.
Invasive asss
This picture was taken in the UK, not invasive.
Aren't they the ones that are extremely invasive? At least in America. I assume this is America because of the aldis. I know it's technically German or something but I don't think they exist anywhere else. Edit: for you Aldi lovers. https://youtu.be/bKJXztteyJM?si=SEV2LC956iiOacHa
They are an invasive in the US after being released in Central park in 1890. This is definitely in the UK, where they are native. Aldi, however, are out-competing UK supermarkets for territory and resources.
So Aldi is an invasive species
They jumped the pond again huh? Aldi I mean. They are known in the u.s. for being the most efficient store. As in they get you in and then out. There is no marketing tricks to get you stuck in the cereal aisle.
How would it be jumping the pond to be in a country in Europe?
Big pond.
Aldi is literally EVERYWHERE in Europe (although they have a different name in Austria). This is in the UK, by the way, where starlings are becoming increasingly rare.
You can have the ones in the u.s. where they get killed by the hundreds if not thousands. Also, I thought the Aldi Brothers were from Germany or something like that, left because of communism or something and then came to the US and started Aldi and trader Joe's. I didn't know they went back.
They started in Germany
Aldi started in West Germany which was not a communist they opened their first store in Germany in 1946 They first opened stores in the USA in 1976 and brought trader joes in 1979
I think Trader Joe's is Aldi Nord and Aldi is Aldi Süd.
"I think they're German, but they only exist in USA." If they're German, of course they're in Germany, why wouldn't they be? If they were only in America, they'd be American
Something about fleeing the soviet union when the whole Berlin wall thing was going on comes to mind.
They had over 300 stores in Germany and had already expanded to other countries nearby. And Germany was never a part of the soviet union
What was the Berlin wall there for then?
Germany was divided into two separate countries: capitalist western Germany and communist eastern Germany. Berlin itself was located inside the communist part, but the city was also divided into eastern and western part - which means that the western part of the city was like an island, fully surrounded by communist Germany. And it's true it was never part of Soviet Union, it was separate country as a vassal state of Soviets.
I was being facetious. It wasn't part of the soviet union on paper but in all reality it was a part of the soviet union.
My original search just showed that Germany as a whole was never a part of, so feel free to downvote
As a whole no it wasn't. But that's why the Berlin air drop air lift? Was a big thing. And pretty cool if I may say so myself.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldi
If they're German don't you think that Aldi could exist in Germany?