A few European Starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) have been around our yard for some time now. Last fall, a flock of ten or so would descent like locusts on our lawn and forage. More recently, we’ve been only frequented by one or two adults working the lawn for insects and worms.
Just in the last few days, however, I’ve begun to see what I thought were a few new brown medium sized mystery birds. It turns out that they are juvenile European Starlings. You can see the comparison here.
I still wasn’t completely sure until today when I saw them all together working on the suet feeder with the adults feeding the juveniles. The juveniles would sit atop the suet or on the fence nearby and the adults would go back and forth bringing food to the babies. I say babies, but as the pictures show, these are nearly full sized “babies.”
From my vantage point, they were cleverly concealing themselves on the fence behind our roses which are now in full bloom.
They seem to be making the rounds together now. All in all, about 6 or 8 birds. They seem particularly attracted to the bath which is conveniently near the suet and they don’t mind sharing with the sparrows.
