{"id":54718,"date":"2018-10-22T06:07:01","date_gmt":"2018-10-22T12:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=54718"},"modified":"2024-08-06T06:25:58","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T11:25:58","slug":"european-starling-facts-and-information","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2018\/10\/22\/european-starling-facts-and-information\/","title":{"rendered":"European Starling Facts and Information"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-131935 size-full\" title=\"European Starling perched on rusty barbed wire\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182.jpg\" alt=\"European Starling perched on rusty barbed wire, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182-800x571.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2182.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">European Starling perched on rusty barbed wire &#8211; Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 800, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I know that there are people who find European Starlings repulsive and resent them for being in this country. I don&#8217;t. I feel that if there is something or someone to blame for their introduction it points directly to humans and homesick European settlers to this country that wanted to see familiar birds.<\/p>\n<p>Personally I am fascinated by European Starling murmurations, their interesting, beautiful plumage and how they can mimic the calls and songs of other birds. Like all the other wild birds in this country I will happily photograph them when I have the chance.<\/p>\n<p>I photographed this European Starling last week next to Glover Pond near <a href=\"https:\/\/greatsaltlakenaturecenter.org\/homepage.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a> on rusty barbed wire where it perched along with Red-winged and Brewer&#8217;s Blackbirds.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazyload aligncenter wp-image-131936 size-full\" title=\"European Starling lifting off from rusty barbed wire fence\" src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg\" data-orig-src=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg\" alt=\"European Starling lifting off from rusty barbed wire fence, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah\" width=\"850\" height=\"607\" srcset=\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg%20xmlns%3D%27http%3A%2F%2Fwww.w3.org%2F2000%2Fsvg%27%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20viewBox%3D%270%200%20850%20607%27%3E%3Crect%20width%3D%27850%27%20height%3D%27607%27%20fill-opacity%3D%220%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-200x143.jpg 200w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-250x179.jpg 250w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-300x214.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-400x286.jpg 400w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-600x428.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-768x548.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184-800x571.jpg 800w, https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg 850w\" data-sizes=\"auto\" data-orig-sizes=\"(max-width: 850px) 100vw, 850px\" \/><span style=\"color: #808080;\">European Starling lifting off from rusty barbed wire fence &#8211; Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/3200, ISO 800, +0.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Morning light can sure make the green and purple iridescence in their feathers glow.<\/p>\n<p>I thought I&#8217;d share some facts and information about European Starlings this morning along with my photos.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>European Starlings are small, chunky black birds with short tails, triangular wings, sharply pointed bills and have a purple and green iridescence to their feathers. European Starlings have white spots during the winter and they are glossy during the breeding season.<\/li>\n<li>Northern European Starlings migrate.<\/li>\n<li>European Starlings are nonnative and were introduced in the early 1890\u2019s, about 100 birds were released in what is today\u2019s Central Park\u00a0 in New York City, they number in the 200 million range today.<\/li>\n<li>An individual European Starling can mimic up to 20 other bird species.<\/li>\n<li>European Starling preferred habitats include cities, farmlands, ranches, suburban areas, parks and golf courses.<\/li>\n<li>European Starlings eat fruits, plants, seeds, insects, small vertebrates, spiders and earthworms.<\/li>\n<li>European Starlings lay 4 to 8 eggs which hatch in 12 to 14 days. Both sexes incubate and they are monogamous.<\/li>\n<li>A group of European Starlings can be called a \u201cfilth\u201d, \u201cvulgarity\u201d, \u201cscourge\u201d, \u201cmurmuration\u201d and \u201cconstellation\u201d of starlings.<\/li>\n<li>European Starlings can live to be more than 15 years of age.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Life <em>is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n<p>Mia<\/p>\n<p>Click <a href=\"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/european-starling-images\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my European Starling photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Personally I am fascinated by European Starling murmurations, their interesting, beautiful plumage and how they can mimic the calls and songs of other birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131936,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,249,697,26],"tags":[4430,251,5114,3830,715,6854,4669,4282,4944,6853,1984,5668,4815,4739,4262],"class_list":["post-54718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-european-starlings","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-utah","tag-barbed-wire","tag-european-starling","tag-facts","tag-fence","tag-glover-pond","tag-information","tag-invasive","tag-lift-off","tag-lifting-off","tag-nonnative","tag-pond","tag-rusty","tag-starling","tag-starlings","tag-sturnus-vulgaris"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-rusty-barbed-wire-mia-mcpherson-2184.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-eey","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":110148,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/02\/10\/the-european-starling-a-tale-of-two-continents\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":0},"title":"The European Starling: A Tale of Two Continents","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"February 10, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Three days ago, I took this photo of a European Starling perched on top of a crabapple tree with a brilliant blue winter sky in the background at a city park.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched European Starling and blue sky, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/european-starling-perched-february-mia-mcpherson-2133.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/european-starling-perched-february-mia-mcpherson-2133.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/european-starling-perched-february-mia-mcpherson-2133.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/european-starling-perched-february-mia-mcpherson-2133.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":17205,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/11\/24\/birds-on-wires-european-starling\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":1},"title":"Birds on Wires &#8211; European Starling","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"November 24, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I know a lot of people don't like European Starlings because they are in introduced species that cause lots of problems for native birds.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"European Starling on rusty barbed wire, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/european-starling-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-4326.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/european-starling-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-4326.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/european-starling-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-4326.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/european-starling-nonbreeding-mia-mcpherson-4326.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":109901,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/01\/29\/european-starling-in-snow\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":2},"title":"European Starling In Snow","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 29, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"This morning my subject is a European Starling in snow. I know some people hate these birds. I know some photographers won't raise their lens for them. I do.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Winter European Starling in snow, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/european-starling-in-snow-mia-mcpherson-1256.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/european-starling-in-snow-mia-mcpherson-1256.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/european-starling-in-snow-mia-mcpherson-1256.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/european-starling-in-snow-mia-mcpherson-1256.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":119046,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2023\/12\/16\/murmuration-of-european-starlings-on-the-wing\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":3},"title":"Murmuration Of European Starlings On The Wing","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 16, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I wasn't the only person who noticed the huge murmuration of European Starlings at my local pond yesterday morning; other people stopped and admired them too.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Murmuration of European Starlings blasting off, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/european-starlings-urban-blasting-off-mia-mcpherson-0021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/european-starlings-urban-blasting-off-mia-mcpherson-0021.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/european-starlings-urban-blasting-off-mia-mcpherson-0021.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/european-starlings-urban-blasting-off-mia-mcpherson-0021.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":76010,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/12\/12\/seeing-all-birds-european-starling-on-a-frosty-perch\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":4},"title":"Seeing All Birds &#8211; European Starling On A Frosty Perch","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"December 12, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"I have a backlog of raptor images I took earlier this week but I wanted to share one of a species that some people hate or many bird photographers prefer to ignore, the European Starling.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"European Starling perched on frosty barb wire, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-on-frosty-barb-wire-mia-mcpherson-9976.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-on-frosty-barb-wire-mia-mcpherson-9976.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-on-frosty-barb-wire-mia-mcpherson-9976.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-on-frosty-barb-wire-mia-mcpherson-9976.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":77112,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2021\/01\/02\/european-starling-my-first-of-year-bird-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":54718,"position":5},"title":"European Starling &#8211; My First Of Year Bird 2021","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 2, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The first bird I saw in 2021 was a European Starling perched on a power line on the road to my local grocery store about 8:15 am yesterday morning.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Birds&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"European Starling at a pond's edge, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-pond-winter-mia-mcpherson-2670.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-pond-winter-mia-mcpherson-2670.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-pond-winter-mia-mcpherson-2670.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/european-starling-pond-winter-mia-mcpherson-2670.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}