ridertore.blogg.se - Spotless starling

When a flock of Common starlings is flying together, the synchronized movements of the birds' wings make a distinctive whooshing sound that can be heard hundreds of meters away.

They acquire their adult plumage the following year. Within 2 months, most juveniles will have molted and gained their first basic plumage. A pair can raise up to three broods per year, although two broods are typical. After leaving the nest fledglings continue to be fed by their parents for another 1 or 2 weeks. Nestlings remain in the nest for 3 weeks, where they are fed continuously by both parents. They develop light fluffy down within 7 days of hatching and can see within 9 days. Incubation lasts 13 days and both parents share the responsibility of brooding the eggs. The female lays 4-5 eggs that are ovoid in shape and pale blue or occasionally white, and they commonly have a glossy appearance. Nests are typically made out of straw, dry grass, and twigs with an inner lining made up of feathers, wool, and soft leaves. Nests may be in any type of hole, common locations include inside hollowed trees, buildings, tree stumps, and man-made nest-boxes. After the pair was formed, the male and female continue to build the nest. The males sing throughout the construction and even more so when a female approaches his nest. Unpaired males find a suitable cavity and begin to build nests in order to attract single females, often decorating the nest with ornaments such as flowers and fresh green material.

Breeding takes place during the spring and summer. Males may mate with a second female while the first is still on the nest. The songsters are more commonly male although females also sing on occasion.Ĭommon starlings are both monogamous and polygynous although broods are generally brought up by one male and one female, occasionally the pair may have an extra helper. Their song consists of a wide variety of both melodic and mechanical-sounding noises as part of a ritual succession of sounds. They chatter while roosting and bathing, making a great deal of noise that can cause irritation to people living nearby. The alarm call is a harsh scream, and while foraging together Common starlings squabble incessantly. Common starlings communicate with help of various calls that include a flock call, threat call, attack call, snarl call, and copulation call. Earthworms are caught by pulling from the soil. "Hawking" is the capture of flying insects directly from the air, and "lunging" is the less common technique of striking forward to catch a moving invertebrate on the ground. "Probing" involves the bird plunging its beak into the ground randomly and repetitively until an insect has been found. Common starlings feed by day using three types of foraging behavior. When in a flock, starlings take off almost simultaneously, wheel and turn in unison, form a compact mass or trail off into a wispy stream, bunch up again, and land in a coordinated fashion. Their flight is quite strong and direct their triangular-shaped wings beat very rapidly, and periodically the birds glide for a short way without losing much height before resuming powered flight. These birds move by walking or running, rather than hopping. These birds are also found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst the seaweed.Ĭommon starlings are highly gregarious birds, especially in autumn and winter when huge, noisy flocks may form near roosts. They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas. Common starlings prefer urban or suburban areas, reedbeds, grassy areas such as farmland, grazing pastures, playing fields, golf courses, and airfields where short grass makes foraging easy. In the autumn, when immigrants are arriving from eastern Europe, many of Britain's common starlings are setting off for Iberia and North Africa. Most birds from northern Europe, Russia, and Ukraine migrate south westwards or south eastwards.

Common starlings in the south and west of Europe are mainly resident, although other populations migrate from regions where the winter is harsh. Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest, Temperate coniferous forest, Temperate grasslandsĬommon starlings are native to Eurasia and are found throughout Europe, northern Africa (from Morocco to Egypt), India (mainly in the north but regularly extending further south and extending into the Maldives) Nepal, the Middle East including Syria, Iran, and Iraq and north-western China.