Birding On Wheels: Juvenile Starling, Stumus vulgaris

LEAVE YOUNG BIRDS BE!!

Please, do not hamper a young bird's life by picking it up, and taking it home with you. It is calling its parents to help them in locating it.
After fledgling from the nest, the parent birds will keep feeding it, and look out for it, until it will be able to look after itself.
And the reason you cannot see a parent is because of your own proxomity to the young bird. And while you are ebating if or not you should take the bird home, you keep the parent from giving it well needed nutrition in the form of a meal!

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Juvenile Starling, Stumus vulgaris

As I've said in my last post, Starling greet me in the early mornings from the Hawthorn behind us. A week or so ago, one youngster said on the top rail of the fence. As close as Starlings would get to my garden.
This morning another (or the same) juvenile starling came this way. This time, its curiosity won over and it was soon down onto the shelving. here, it sat not only posing for a bit, but started to taste the bugs on the fading greenery around the shelves. young Starlings are grey, whereas the adult is the famous bird with its glamorous dark starry coat. When the juveniles moult into adult plumage, their bodies moult first, and this often gives them a clown-like appearance with their head remaining grey until their moulting is complete. This one has a funny appearance certainly, and it would confuse a lot of beginning birders, as to identifying the species.

Juvenile Starling, Stumus vulgaris

The Starlings might not be attracted to the food on offer, these visitors certainly are. I can hearthe shrill Zee of the Goldcrest, but I've not been able to locate it. Since the trees up front were topped very drastically, they and the Blue Tits moved away, searching for other conifers. So it would be great to see the returning to my humble garden.

Rook, Corvus frugilegus