I am so sick of starling fledging season!!

[warmfuzzies]

They jump out of their nests, and are dead all over the yard!

Which is especially gross when you are mowing!!

Or they just hop around, with their horrible squacking voices, untill my chickens kill them!

Stupid birds, they take up all the nice nests, then die in my yard!!

OK I'm better now after that serious rant.

 

[saddina]

If it helps at all, they're a non native species, so at least that's something.

 

[warmfuzzies]

I know. Thats why I kill them if I find them. I might get yelled at for this, but oh well.

Its not fun, but we had AT LEAST 6 perfect bluebird nests here, in our trees. Great cavities for them. But EVERY one of them is inhabited by some kind of starling family. It makes me angry!

 

[JennsPeeps]

I'm with you on getting rid of non-native species.

Of the bird species that regularly visit my yard - starlings, sparrows, pigeons, scrub jays, crows, Anna's hummingbirds, chickadees, bushtits- only the underlined ones are native.

Oh, just found this link for urban songbird identification in Puget Sound. Cool! http://protist.biology.washington.edu/nwbirds/home.html

 

[chicks4kids]

We shoot ours too

They are rather intrusive!! So we get 'em from our window!! Saves a fortune in bird food!!

 

[warmfuzzies]

We have sparrow too, but I think ours are native ones. If I found out they werent I would be shooting them too, cause I read those house sparrows or whatever they are will throw native babies out of their nests.

We also have native kingbirds and meadowlarks, but they arent cavity nesters so it is not such a big problem for them. But the starlings still eat a big portion of the available food, because they are more agressive.

 

[Intheswamp]

Quote:
Uh, if the "sparrows" that you speak of are nesting in cavities rather than open-cup nests then they are probably the European Weaver Finch (aka house sparrow). It is my understanding that we have no native cavity nesting sparrows in North America.

ETA: Kingbirds...really neat birds. I've watched them ride purple martins to the ground by grabbing the martins back and riding them down. It doesn't hurt the martin (other than their pride). I'm not sure why they have such a attitude toward martins, but it's interesting to watch...might be a terrirotrial trait in the kingbird. Pretty birds, too.

Ed

 

[Camelot Farms]

Me too! Starlings are just a pain in the butt. Every year they tear out my dryer vent and they get in the wood stove through the chimney.

Thankfully they arent as bad as here in VA as they were in NY. We would see flocks of 1000's of them in the dairy barns. Ick!

 

[JennsPeeps]

Here's what the non-native/invasive European sparrows look like, and a link about invasive birds: http://buildyourownbirdhouseplans.c...-insidious-invaders-house-sparrows-starlings/

If you're not sure if yours are natives, google your region's name & "native birds".