Seven starlings

[nanila]

A group of eight starlings (only seven pictured) descended on our garden feeders this morning in rural Worcestershire, UK. They feasted noisily on the fat balls for about half an hour, keeping everyone else at bay, and then departed. I don't think they were missed by any but the humans who had enjoyed watching them.

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

We have been having the worst time trying to get our local birdies to eat suet. I suspect they're finding easier food elsewhere because even mixing it with the loose seed doesn't do much.

[nanila]

Is it related to temperature? We often find the fat balls don't get consumed as quickly when it warms up. Although this correlation goes out the window as soon as nesting starts - they wipe out everything!

[yourlibrarian]

Actually it seems the opposite -- the cold must make the suet too hard for the sparrows who are the usual guests. But that's a good tip about spring eating habits. Hopefully it'll be gone then!

[shirebound]

How delightful. News of your restaurant's delicious menu has spread!

[nanila]

Haha! We just have to keep it up - not so easy in the cold weather when they seem to devour everything.

[minoanmiss]

*gazes in delight*

[nanila]

We did that for quite a while. :)

[turlough]

I don't think I've ever seen starlings this close before so I never realised how long their beaks are. Fascinating! But I can see why the other birds were happy they left, they do kind of look like a gang of hoodlums :-)

[nanila]

They tussled a lot, which seemed unnecessary to me given that there was plenty of space for them on the feeders!

[templemarker]

just lovely!

[nanila]

They are, even without their breeding plumage on!

[dhampyresa]

What pretty birdies!

[nanila]

Yes! We often see murmurations of them over large farm buildings, but they're infrequent garden visitors.

[cesy]

They're so great. A few families found my sister's bird feeder last year and get through a lot of fat balls when the young are growing.

[nanila]

I love watching the great murmurations of them rising above the fields in spring. :)