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Don't be so sure about your chickens eating these birds...
These are gladiators that some do-goodie nut brought over here from England/Europe....he wanted to bring over every bird that Shakespear wrote about in his works.<DUH!!!> I refer to them as "flying rats"....weaver finches (aka...house sparrows) I refer to as "flying mice".
Starlings have been known many times to evict adult woodpeckers from their nests...they are also well documented at holding down and pecking to death adult purple martins in the nest cavities. If you look at the starling it's beak is a heavy dagger, legs and feet are heavy, and it is a tall, stout bird (for it's size range). But, the most impressive aspect of it's makeup is it's mentality...it has a killer instinct unlike most native species of it's size.
One interesting note is that it's wing feathering almost acts like a bullet-proof vest. I've shot them with a .22 springer pellet gun and have had the pellets harmlessly bounce off of the outside of their wings....head, breast, or tail are the target areas.
No, one-on-one they couldn't take on a grown chicken...but starlings don't fight by any rules, they'll gang up on whatever they want to attack. They're cold blooded killing machines...especially when they're lots of them. Plus...they're disease prone. If the OP could trap and kill them he/she would be doing all the native birds a big big favor.
Ed
Don't be so sure about your chickens eating these birds...
These are gladiators that some do-goodie nut brought over here from England/Europe....he wanted to bring over every bird that Shakespear wrote about in his works.<DUH!!!> I refer to them as "flying rats"....weaver finches (aka...house sparrows) I refer to as "flying mice".
Starlings have been known many times to evict adult woodpeckers from their nests...they are also well documented at holding down and pecking to death adult purple martins in the nest cavities. If you look at the starling it's beak is a heavy dagger, legs and feet are heavy, and it is a tall, stout bird (for it's size range). But, the most impressive aspect of it's makeup is it's mentality...it has a killer instinct unlike most native species of it's size.
One interesting note is that it's wing feathering almost acts like a bullet-proof vest. I've shot them with a .22 springer pellet gun and have had the pellets harmlessly bounce off of the outside of their wings....head, breast, or tail are the target areas.
No, one-on-one they couldn't take on a grown chicken...but starlings don't fight by any rules, they'll gang up on whatever they want to attack. They're cold blooded killing machines...especially when they're lots of them. Plus...they're disease prone. If the OP could trap and kill them he/she would be doing all the native birds a big big favor.
Ed
