Starlings by John Greeves

Starlings: Balletic Dancers of the Skies

by John Greeves

Attitudes to the Common Starling (Sturnus Vulgarus) is a little bit like Marmite, you either love it or hate it. Those in favour of starlings will see them as sociable and gregarious birds, tenacious and adaptable especially when it comes to urban living. They will quickly point out the benefits they bring to both forestry and agriculture by eating a vast number of invertebrates, many of which are pests. Others, will be less generous disposed, citing them as quarrelsome, vociferous and a general nuisance. It won’t take them long before they talk about the damage they cause to soft fruits like cherries and the food they consume, which was intended for domestic live-stock. Some gardeners, will see starlings as the aggressive scourge of the bird table, arriving in flocks, mob-handling other smaller birds, before cleaning out the feeding station and flying on. Whatever your views,(and starlings have to live as well), these birds have amazing adaptability, enabling them to exploit food sources found on farmland, sea shores, moorlands, rubbish tips, sewage farms, suburban gardens and even city centres. As tree hole nesters they have adapted very well to urban living by exploiting any hole with a suitable interior cavity found on a man made structure. Our homes have not escaped their attention, and these noisy opportunists have sought out dryer and bathroom vents, vacant roof-spaces or cavities in our homes to take up residency as our uninvited guests.

At one time an estimated 37 million starlings lived in the UK with huge flocks once gathering over Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Liverpool. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Belfast. Sadly those numbers have declined dramatically by 80 % in recent years. Today their numbers are estimated at 1.8 million birds and this staggering decline has now placed them on the critical red list of UK birds. The blunt truth is that between 1995 and 2016 alone, Britain’s breeding population of Common Starlings crashed by a staggering 51%. In the past 1/3 of juveniles used to survive in the first year, that number has dropped alarmingly now to 15%. The British Trust for Ornithology found that although most broods hatched successfully, the real problem occurred away from the nest. Loss of pasture land, farm chemicals and decline of soil invertebrates like earthworms and leatherjackets have all been blamed, but the major cause for this decline still remains unknown.

The Common starling is a medium-sized black song bird with short, triangular wings and a short tail with iridescent purplish-black plumage on its head and chest. The starling’s beak is dark brown for most of the year but from December something amazing happens and the bill becomes yellow for both sexes but the base of the male’s bill is steely-blue while the bill of the female has a creamy pink base. In spring the male seeks out a number of nesting sites. To attract a mate, the male builds a rough nest of grass and leaves in his best hole and sings out to entice a mate. In Britain breeding usually begins in mid April but further north and east laying is later. Four to six pale blue eggs are normally laid. Usually one clutch is laid, although a second may be laid. Female starlings in the same area lay their first clutch of eggs synchronously so that all the young starlings will emerge within a day or two of each other.

Some males are polygamous, and may acquire a second nest site and mate with a young female, while the first female looks after their clutch. What is intriguing is some of these younger mating females sometimes behave like Cuckoos and choose to lay their eggs in other starling nests. It’s not fully understood why this behaviour (nest parasitism) exists with some starlings and not with others.

In the winter our resident starling population is augmented by a major influx of birds from the colder parts of Europe. Starlings are conspicuous because they are invariably seen in flocks. These flock sizes can vary up to 100,000 birds and gather to feed where grassland invertebrates are plentiful and then coalesce at night time in a roost. These are sheltered places away from harsh weather and predators such as woodlands, reedbeds, cliffs, buildings and industrial buildings.

Perhaps the most spectacular part of the Starling’s social life is associated with the night time roost. Here starlings perform a balletic aerial display known as a murmuration before settling down for the night. John Updike described his sight of a sublime murmuration as: the flock ascended as a lady’s scarf...negligently tossed toward a chair. Many others have found poetic beauty in its form while some have tried to understand the science of this natural phenomenon that makes all of us gasp.

Starling Murmurations.

In 1987, Craig Reynolds a computer scientist created a simulation of a flock of birds. His computer generated creatures followed three rules to create the different movement patterns seen in murmurations: nearby birds would move further apart, other birds would align their direction and speed and more distant birds would move closer in. In 2008, a group in Italy were able to film a starling murmuration in Rome and found that Reynold’s modelling rules could be applied. They also concluded that starlings sought to match the direction and speed of the nearest seven or so neighbours, rather than responding to the movements of all of the nearby birds around them.

Behavioural biologists have postulated on the causes of this behaviour. Two hypothesis attempt to explain this behaviour in terms ‘warmer together’ and the ‘safer together hypothesis.’ As Nigel Butcher explains to me from the RSPB, “One of the obvious theories about murmuration is that predatory species like Kestrels, Sparrowhawks, and Buzzards are confused by the behaviour of the murmuration and can’t really focus on one particular individual to prey on.” As to the ‘warmer together,’ hypothesises, Anne Goodenough at the University of Gloucester in her 3,200 surveys of starling murmurations found that the temperature was not linked to the number of starling murmurations.

Starling murmurations happen during the winter months, roughly from October to March. The peak in numbers is usually December to January when more birds come over from Europe and join our resident birds. Popular sites to see them include Gretna Green in Dumfries and Galloway and Brighton Pier in Sussex. The Starlings in the UK website can be very helpful in finding a local murmuration close to your home. The RSPB also have a number of prime sites where murmurations can be seen including:

RSPB Ham Wall

RSPB Leighton Moss

RSPB Marazion Marsh

RSPB Minsmere

RSPB Newport Wetlands

RSPB Titchwell Perhaps much of man’s interest has often in conflict with the starling’s needs. With bio-diversity rapidly diminishing different species at an alarming rate, it is perhaps time to remove some of the bad press and give starlings a second chance. As Nigel Butcher from the RSPB says, “I think they are an iconic species which are sometimes misunderstood or unloved. I think if people knew them better and looked at all their intricacies and characteristics they’d discover what a fabulous species they are.”

Links

https://www.rspb.org.uk/birds-and-wildlife/wildlife-guides/ bird-a-z/starling/starling-murmurations/ https://www.starlingsintheuk.co.uk/roost-map.html

John Greeves originally hails from Lincolnshire. He believes in the power of poetry and writing to change people’s lives and the need for language to move and connect people to the modern world. Since retiring from Cardiff University, Greeves works as a freelance journalist who's interested in an eclectic range of topics.