Starling

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Common Starling, or Sturnus vulgaris

Identification

Starlings are medium-sized, brown perching birds. You often see them in groups sitting on the power lines. They are about 20 cm. in size with brown-black iridescent feathers, usually with white speckling. The iridescence often gives their feathers a rainbow-coloured sheen. Starlings have black eyes, yellow beaks and orange feet. They tend to be quite noisy especially when they gather in large groups. Starlings belong to the group of animals called vertebrates, or animals with “vertebrae” in their backs. The vertebrae protect the main nerve highway, the spinal cord of these animals.

Starlings can also be identified by their call:

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/sounds

Migration

Starlings are migratory birds. This means that the birds fly from one area to another area to find food or appropriate mating territory. Starlings mate and feed during the summer in Canada and then migrate to the U.S. in the winter to make finding food easier. Starlings are fascinating to watch during migration. In the fall, they gather in huge groups of more than one hundred. These groups are called “murmurations” and the birds can be seen clustering on power lines. But the most interesting thing to watch is how they fly. The flock comes together, spreads out and avoids obstacles – as if it were one being. Scientists have discovered that the motion of these flocks can actually be predicted and modelled by using just a few simple rules.

Nesting

Male starlings will find a hole in a tree or building, or almost anywhere. He uses grass, pine needles, feathers or random garbage to build the nest. He will then decorate the nest with flowers and herbs. It is thought that these fragrant plants may actually attract the females. The female will lay around five pale-blue glossy eggs. The parents sit on the eggs for almost two weeks before they hatch. The young will stay in the nest for three weeks before they fledge and their parents will feed them for a further two weeks before they are independent. Starlings typically raise two sets of young in one season in the same nest.

Diet

Starlings are mostly insectivorous which means they mainly eat insects. But they do sometimes eat seeds and nectar as well. Because they eat so many insects, they need to migrate because there are very few insects in Nova Scotia in the winter. 

Interesting Fact

Starlings are not native to North America. They were introduced from Europe multiple times. The starlings that managed to survive in North American were introduced in the 1890s from 65 birds that were released in Central Park in New York City. The story is that the man who introduced the starlings did so because he wanted all the bird species that were mentioned in Shakespearean plays to exist, as well, in North America.

Biomimicry

Scientists inspired by the unique abilities of certain organisms often try and create inventions based on those unique abilities: this is called biomimicry. The creation and use of “boids” are a good example of biomimicry in development. The boids are virtual objects that are controlled with a computer program. The boids follow three simple rules: 1) avoid crashing into other boids or objects, 2) go in the same direction as nearby boids, and 3) move toward the center of any nearby boids. These virtual boids act just like a flock of birds  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbUPfMXXQIY). This is also a good example of an amazing concept called “emergent properties” where small things interact and produce a bigger “thing” that has its own different properties. These rules also apply to schooling in fish. Researchers are working on using this “swarm intelligence” to create robot flocks that do certain tasks.

Scientific Name

Starlings are known scientifically as Sturnus vulgaris.

~Monica Schuegraf