Starlings are typically small birds with strong feet. Their plumage is dark with a metallic sheen. The birds are distributed in Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. Several European and Asian species have spread to North America and New Zealand. Starlings live close to human habitations and they feed on all kinds of food. The Asian starling is commonly called Mynah.
Starlings join in roosting together. In about five acres of groves near Lexington, Kentucky several million roosting starlings were found along with a number of other species of birds such as grackles and cowbirds. Birds in a flock are generally safer than living a lone. A group of captive birds were on the average one second quicker to react to a model hawk than was a single bird. One second may be insignificant to us, but in a bird’s world it can mean the difference between life and death.
Starlings fly in dense flocks that are highly maneuverable. They remain elusive and even dangerous for predatory birds like eagles or falcons that could be seriously injured flying into a flock. A falcon flying at 140 miles per hour speed can never take a chance to touch even a small moving bird. Its wing would break.
The European starling has its reproductive organs almost invisible. But with the onset of the breeding season the tiny reproductive organs begin to grow 1500 times their initial size. For a bird adapted to fly, its body should remain light. Nature has designed the bird in such a way that the animal would get excessive load only when it is necessary.
Starlings are capable of mimicry. They can imitate other bird species. Mimicry like song itself serves many functions. A large song repertoire is a great help for the male to attract females. Mimicry is an added advantage in establishing sovereignty, as also a protection against predators.
Starlings treat their feathers with ants (anting). The formic acid of the ants is believed to destroy the feather mites. In an experiment, a starling offered a boiled acid free ant, anted once but refused a second time. The same bird when given dead ants whose acid has not been removed, accepted and anted. The birds obviously are sensitive to the acid of ants and prefer to have the ants on their feathers to clear off parasites.
European starlings change from a glossy black to a white spotted plumage as the black feathers shorten and the white spots underneath appear. This is called feather wear that brings about change in colors. In molting old feathers are shed and new ones are grown.
In starlings the process involves the wearing down of old feathers gradually revealing the underlying new ones.
Eugene Schieffelin introduced the European starling into Central Park in New York in 1890. Today the starlings have spread across all over Northern America except perhaps the extreme northern regions.
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