Birds of a feather

Discover more about the starlings that create one of the UK's most amazing wildlife spectacles...

Quarrelsome. Noisy. Messy. Greedy. Just some of the reasons that starlings aren't always appreciated as garden visitors. Personally, I delight when a flock of starlings descends onto my feeders and lawn. Their iridescent plumage, with feathers flickering from green to purple depending on the light, brings a touch of the exotic. I may sometimes, however, shove my head under the pillow with a groan when the youngsters, yelling to be fed, arrive with parents at 5am on a summer morning.

Generally, though, I love to hear their quarrelling. It reminds me that's there's still hope. In the last 30 or so years we've lost more than half of our starlings in the UK and they're now on the red list of UK Birds of Conservation Concern. The piecemeal loss of grasslands (whether that's in the wider countryside or even in our gardens) is one of the reasons for their decline. But the fact that I still get good numbers visiting my garden means that in my little part of the world, at least, they're doing okay.

Starling perched on a thin stem, the bird's body is facing to the right but its head is turned to the left. The bird is overall dark with white/cream tips at the ends of some feathers and iridescent purple/green feathers around the neck.

At this time of year, their numbers are boosted by arrivals from Eastern Europe and parts of Russia. There's safety in numbers and flocking together helps to protect individual birds. If you're out and about, you may spot flocks of a hundred or more birds feeding on fruit on/under trees or in fields, looking for worms and other soil invertebrates. The way they feed is the reason why they can appear to be messy in our gardens. The muscles powering their beaks are designed to probe into the earth and then open, creating gaps in the soil before snapping shut on anything they sense in the soil. This doesn't work so well when diving into a feeder full of food - seeds scatter everywhere as the birds open their bills with gusto.

The flocks will move between feeding areas before heading to a communal roost in the evening. This can give rise to spectacular murmurations, when flocks from far and wide 'dance' in the sky before settling down for the evening. The birds split into smaller flocks during the day but can come from up to 20 miles away to spend the night snuggled together for warmth and protection. I say snuggled. There's a strict hierarchy and those lower down the pecking order find themselves pushed to the edges, where they might get picked off by any number of predators.

The combining of the flocks as they come together for the night can create a spectacular sight, especially if a raptor or two decides to look for a meal amongst the flock. The starlings swirl in cloud-like formations before dramatically dropping into their roost. They remain vocal for a while, presumably exchanging information about good feeding spots, as they shuffle the flock into appropriate sleeping positions. Waking up and setting off can be just as impressive a spectacle but is over much more quickly as the starlings head off to find food.

A large flock of starlings in the sky, below is an orange-sunset and the Malvern Hills

I'm lucky enough to have lost count of the number of murmurations I've watched but, sadly, I've only seen a handful in Worcestershire. A few years ago, I watched millions of starlings go to roost on the Somerset Levels - and it really was a true wild spectacle - but there's nothing quite like finding your own starlings on your own patch. I watched a murmuration from a supermarket car park in Worcester, other shoppers walking past oblivious to what was happening above their heads. But I was delighted to find a flock of several thousand bedding down within a few miles of home; I'd make sure I was out of the office on time so I could catch them just as the sun was setting. They've not been reliable enough in the past couple of years but we do hear of small murmurations happening across the county, with birds roosting in reedbeds, trees or buildings, so it's always worth looking to the skies as light levels fall at this time of year, you never know what you might spot.

Next time you’re complaining about the ‘greedy’ starlings at your garden feeders, please remember that you’re lucky to have them!