The common starling ( Sturnus vulgaris ) is a species of bird in the starling family, Sturnidae, and the order Passeriformes, native to Europe and parts of the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa. Also known simply as the starling in Great Britain and Ireland, and as the European starling in North America, this medium-sized passerine bird has successfully adapted to a wide range of environments, establishing itself as a prominent, though sometimes controversial, member of ecosystems worldwide.
Introduction
The common starling's diet is a key factor in understanding its adaptability and success as a species. As an omnivore, the common starling consumes a diverse array of food items, ranging from insects and invertebrates to fruits, seeds, and even human food waste. This dietary flexibility has allowed it to thrive in various habitats and has also contributed to its reputation as an invasive species in some regions.
Natural History and Habitat
The common starling is a sturdy bird about 21.5 cm (about 8.5 inches) in length. Its plumage is primarily black, with an iridescent sheen that colors the feathers purple and green in certain lights. After moulting in the late summer and fall, it takes on a brown and white speckled appearance. Common starlings sport short tails and long, narrow beaks; during breeding season, male and female starlings can be differentiated by the color of the lower mandible, which appears tinted either blue or pink, respectively.
Common starlings are native to Asia, Europe, Africa, islands of the tropical Pacific, and northern Australia. They have about 12 subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and across the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and it has been introduced as an invasive species to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji.
Omnivorous Diet: A Varied Menu
Common starlings are omnivorous and consume a variety of insects, bird eggs, fruit, and seeds. Their strong and sharp beaks allow them to forage in the ground and access food that may be protected by a shell or tough skin. The common starling is largely insectivorous and feeds on both pest and other arthropods. The food range includes spiders, crane flies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damsel flies, grasshoppers, earwigs, lacewings, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps and ants. Prey are consumed in both adult and larvae stages of development, and common starlings will also feed on earthworms, snails, small amphibians and lizards.
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Insects and Invertebrates
About 58% of the adult starling diet is made up of invertebrates, such as insects. This is usually their preferred food. The common starling is largely insectivorous and feeds on both pest and other arthropods. The food range includes spiders, crane flies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damsel flies, grasshoppers, earwigs, lacewings, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps and ants. Prey are consumed in both adult and larvae stages of development, and common starlings will also feed on earthworms, snails, small amphibians and lizards.
Starlings eat insects, including caterpillars, mealworms, and beetles. Although starlings primarily eat insects in all stages of life, they prefer larvae. Starlings love leatherjackets (cranefly larvae) that tend to live in lawns and grasslands.
Fruits, Seeds, and Grains
Starlings also eat fruits, vegetables, grains, seeds, legumes, and nuts. Fruits give starlings many vital nutrients that they may not be able to get from insects. Starlings are world-renowned for their insatiable appetites and will feast upon everything from seeds and grains to insects all year round, including in winter.
Adaptations for Feeding
Several terrestrial starlings, including those in the genus Sturnus, have adaptations of the skull and muscles that help with feeding by probing. This adaptation is most strongly developed in the common starling (along with the spotless and white-cheeked starlings), where the protractor muscles responsible for opening the jaw are enlarged and the skull is narrow, allowing the eye to be moved forward to peer down the length of the bill. This technique involves inserting the bill into the ground and opening it as a way of searching for hidden food items.
Feeding Habits in Different Seasons
Throughout summer, starlings will also consume berries, nuts, grains and seeds. Starlings are very active and social prior to roosting in autumn, and early winter and will generally feed upon the most nutritious plant material they can find as well as almost any and all small insects.
Read also: The Hoxsey Diet
The seasonal shift in diet is matched by a lengthening of their intestine to cope with the increased plant material, which is harder to digest. A cost of the extra weight, though, is that the birds don’t fly as well as their advantaged peers, which may make them more vulnerable to predators.
Food Preferences and Aversions
Though starlings usually love seeds, there are seeds that starlings don’t like. They usually avoid peanuts within shells, thistle, safflower, and nyjer seeds. Since starlings lack the beak strength to crack hard peanut shells, whole peanuts can successfully attract jays, woodpeckers, titmice, and a few other species without encouraging starlings. (Grackles CAN crack peanut shells, so this advice applies only to starlings.)
Foraging Behavior
There are several methods by which common starlings obtain their food, but, for the most part, they forage close to the ground, taking insects from the surface or just underneath. Generally, common starlings prefer foraging amongst short-cropped grasses and eat with grazing animals or perch on their backs, where they will also feed on the mammal's external parasites. Large flocks may engage in a practice known as "roller-feeding", where the birds at the back of the flock continually fly to the front where the feeding opportunities are best. The larger the flock, the nearer individuals are to one another while foraging.
There are three types of foraging behaviors observed in the common starling. "Probing" involves the bird plunging its beak into the ground randomly and repetitively until an insect has been found, and is often accompanied by bill gaping where the bird opens its beak inside the soil to create a larger hole. "Surface gleaning" involves the bird taking insects from the surface of the soil or vegetation. "Flycatching" is where the bird catches insects in mid-air.
Impact on Agriculture and Ecosystems
The eating habits of starlings cause destruction of plant species, but they also aid in seed dispersal and pollination. In some cases, starlings can function as pest control, due to the high number of insects they consume. The fondness starlings have for fruits and vegetables makes them pests to people who are trying to grow these foods. Starlings also have a tendency to rip flower buds from trees, causing quite a bit of damage on fruit plantations. In wild environments, starlings are very important for the reproduction of several plants. They feed on fruits, such as wild berries, and then they carry the seeds to different areas. This enables the plants to spread and grow. Some starlings are also important pollinators.
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Diet of Young Starlings
While adult starlings have a diverse diet, starling chicks only eat insects. Insects contain a high protein content and have the ideal balance of nutrients for the growth of baby starlings. Parent starlings usually bring food items to the nest, accumulating a small stock to make sure that the chicks have enough food. In the very early stages of life, parent starlings will regurgitate food back to the chicks. This food is usually going to be some mixture of soft-bodied invertebrates, such as millipedes, beetles, and crane fly larvae. Baby starlings will eat larger and larger pieces of food until they are able to fly on their own and catch their own insects.
Starlings feed their babies with a mixture of small soft-bodied invertebrates, which are brought back to the nest by both the male and female. This varies depending on their habitat but comprises of beetles, caterpillars, millipedes, cranefly larvae, grasshoppers and crickets. These small items are fed to the chicks shortly after hatching, as soon as they are ready to eat. Once the nestlings get a bit older, larger insects and a wider assortment of food will be introduced.
Providing Food for Starlings
If you want starlings on your property, it’s good to know that they can likely find a lot of what they want in your grass alone. Your grass is likely home to many beetles, worms, and other insects. If you want to feed starlings from your bird feeder, remember that they have relatively soft bills. Because of this, a softbill mix might be a good idea.
Absolutely! Starlings love a well-stocked bird feeder and ideally prefer softer grains and seeds. For those that do wish to feed starlings from their birdfeeders, remember that starlings have fairly soft bills, so softbill mixes go down particularly well.
Discouraging Starlings from Feeders
Rather than attracting starlings to their gardens, many people try to keep them away, mostly because they will consume anything and everything available to them, leaving nothing left for other birds. This isn’t a character defect - starlings have evolved to feed in flocks, and consuming vast amounts of food in a short space of time is an advantage.
The most effective way to avoid losing all of your bird food to blackbirds is to physically prevent them from gaining access to the food. These birds are simply too large to fit through the openings of the cages that surround the feeders below, yet smaller birds fly right through the openings in much the same way as they would fly through a fence or navigate in the dense branches of a bush.
Feeder Options
- Suet Feeder with Built-In Guard: This feeder holds two suet cakes and will provide woodpeckers, titmice, bluebirds, Carolina wrens, nuthatches and other smaller birds with a meal while excluding starlings, blackbirds, and squirrels.
- On-Guard Protector for Peanut Feeders, Cylinder Feeders, and more: These cage style guards are sold separately to fit over various feeder styles. Small birds fly right in, while large woodpeckers can stretch their long necks and beaks to reach the food. Blackbirds cannot.
- On-Guard for Tube Feeders, Perfect When Paired with a Safflower Feeder: Because No-Mess Blend and other blends containing shell-free seeds are easier for starlings to eat, guards to protect the tube feeders in which they are served are beneficial.
- Upside Down Suet Feeder: Because there are no perches or ledges on which to sit, the blackbirds do not use this feeder as easily as smaller birds, such as goldfinches, chickadees, titmice and nuthatches.
Food Options
- Simply Suet: Simply Suet, which is pure rendered suet with no added nuts or fruit, has very little appeal to starlings.
- In-Shell Peanuts: Since starlings lack the beak strength to crack hard peanut shells, whole peanuts can successfully attract jays, woodpeckers, titmice, and a few other species without encouraging starlings.
- Safflower and Safflower Cylinders: Because of the hard shell on safflower seed, which starlings can't crack, many starlings won't gorge themselves on safflower, though some will eat it in the worst of weather.
Foods to Avoid
Never offer bread, pizza crusts, or other similar foods. Few songbirds will eat them, yet these soft foods are extremely palatable to starlings and will act like a magnet, drawing every starling in the neighborhood.