This is so cool, our cats like to catch birds, and I have saved 3 from them, two were hummingbirds, and also a pigme owl the other day. I will follow along so I will lave more info to help other birds in the future! I think this is a really cool idea!
Thanks! And that's awesome that you helped those birds, I saved a hummingbird once too and they're amazing. I've never seen a pygmy owl, but they seem really cool! Good luck with any future rescues!
There is a reason the law is written like that. It means European starlings are not native, they’re pests. A few years ago one (1) starling brought roost mites to my coop by starting a nest in the bedding, and by the time I discovered it and cleaned it out, there must have been 1 million mites in the coop. I had to resort to off label pesticides to save any hope of continuing chicken keeping. Before that, starlings nested in the eave, the underpart of the roof of my house. It was quite expensive to repair the eave. They persisted in returning to the eave every year for 6 years. There are huge flocks in the fall numbering in the tens of thousands. So many their flocks look like smoke. Starlings are in no danger of going extinct. Mine is an extreme example as why not to allow starlings to establish themselves. You may wish to put your time and energy toward saving individuals of a more deserving species.
She wants to do it, because since they are over populating, people kill them, so to keep people from killing them she wants to reduce them. I think that is kinda the point. Plus, endangered species, won't be legal to catch.
Well best of luck. It might be worth studying starlings as a school project to find a way to put them more in balance with the environment. I’m old and cranky and about all I can do is shake
I think you may have misunderstood my post. The reason I'm doing this is to take them out of the ecosystem in a way that doesn't include killing them. In my mind, no matter how invasive they are, each individual doesn't choose to be that way, they're just living life, so it's impossible for me to kill anything. But I want to help get rid of invasive species, so I'll be taking wild babies out of their nest in spring so that they can't grow up into the wild and continue to be invasive. Eventually, I'm hoping i'll be able to get the population to go down a bit, since there won't be a lot of babies to grow up into adults and replace the ones that die.
I think this is a great idea. I never thought of that. You should defiantly consider this @KenjiQuacker. Maybe a quarantine area like we do with chickens, so you can quarantine new birds as not to attack diseases to the birds your raising.
Ok I’d rather not argue with anyone trying to do good. Why would starlings be worth saving? How would it be accomplished?
Every animal is worth saving, just because there invasive doesn't mean there a terrible species. Some people believe that invasive species that carry mites don't deserve to live, but @KenjiQuacker believes they do and so do I. What about, a Bald Eagle? Do they deserve to live? They carry mites as well, and will kill your chickens if they are living near you. That is worse then a Starling. Just my thoughts, not to be offensive.
