Why is the european starling a problem
Why are Starlings an Invasive Species Where Introduced 2018
I'm here to tell you about the negative
effects starlings have on our native
birds here in North America and
elsewhere let's watch the video and find
out more you so what is this darling
well the Starling is an old-world
songbird also known as the common
Starling or European Starling it is
native of Europe northern Africa and
Southwest Asia starlings are a cavity
nesting bird and will nest in almost any
cavity that they can find they
especially are attracted to holes in
buildings and other man-made structures
they also like to nest in woodpecker
holes and nest boxes so how do you
identify starlings
as you can see starlings are dart chunky
birds they're about eight and a half
inches long with a long pointed bill
when flying you'll note their short
square tail and triangular wings in the
winter their bill is black and their
body is covered with white spots by
spring their bill turns yellow and they
lose their spots breeding birds are an
iridescent purple and green juvenile
starlings are a drab grayish brown as
they molt they will attain dark feathers
with white spots like an adult
although starlings can look black in
color and associate with black birds
they are not members of the new world
black bird family the old-world Starling
family is their lineage why are
starlings an invasive species where
they've been introduced
well starlings have been introduced in
North America Australia New Zealand
South Africa Argentina and elsewhere
where they are introduced they often
out-compete native cavity nesting birds
they reproduce quickly and spread
aggressively they are not a protected
species in North America where they can
be legally eliminated wherever they are
introduced they are not protected and
you can legally remove their nest eggs
and young in comparison native birds are
protected and you cannot harm them or
their nests
so how did they out-compete native
cavity nesting birds starlings are very
aggressive and persistent and are almost
always successful at evicting other
birds from their nesting cavities
the Starling population is so large that
they outnumber native cavity nesting
birds the native birds are relatively
defenseless against the starlings as
they did not evolve together I've even
witnessed starlings attacking each other
while fighting for a nesting site
woodpeckers are especially vulnerable to
starlings the starlings will wait for
woodpeckers to excavate a cavity and
then attack the woodpeckers until the
woodpeckers finally give up when if
Starling chooses a cavity to use they
will destroy the eggs the young and even
the adults of the native birds using the
cavity they use their long pointed bill
the stab and injure or even kill their
competition once the site is acquired
they may build a nest on top of existing
eggs or young they begin nesting before
migrants are arrived on their breeding
grounds and hence prevent them from
nesting successfully they're able to
evict birds as large as wood ducks from
their nests they can also evict kestrels
owls fly catchers and purple martins so
how can you control starlings I find
trapping starlings to be the best method
of controlling their numbers so that
native birds can nest successfully when
you remove a pair of starlings from the
population you are also removing their
offspring from the population with
starlings producing two broods of five
each that is two parents and ten
offspring that will not compete with
native birds if you provide nest boxes
for Flicker woodpeckers you have to trap
the starlings to prevent them from
evicting the woodpeckers so what effect
do starlings have on native birds well
every time a pair of starlings prevent a
pair of native birds from nesting they
reduce the native bird population and
increase the Starling population if
native birds aren't raising young their
population will continue to fall sternly
it's like the nest in the open the same
habitat
reference of Flickr and red-headed
woodpeckers these two species are both
in decline and I believe starlings are
the main reason why according to the
North American breeding bird survey
northern flickers numbers have decreased
about fifty percent since the mid 1960s
while redheaded woodpeckers have
declined 70 percent since that time so
let me share some of my experiences I've
witnessed starlings destroying eggs
killing the young and fighting with
adult flicker woodpeckers stabbing the
defenseless flickers with their bill I
trap and eliminate between 100 and 400
starlings a year in my yard using baited
and nest box traps imagine a pair of
woodpeckers defending against that many
starlings since I began trapping
starlings the flickr woodpeckers are
able to nest successfully every year in
my yard in 2017 I had three pairs nest
here great crested fly catchers are able
to nest every year in my yard as well
because I control starlings on the farm
red-headed woodpeckers have nested
successfully in a nest box as well as
wood ducks and multiple pairs of
flippers you live in a location where
starlings have been introduced what bird
species do they compete with where you
live do you control their population
leave the answers to these questions in
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you
