I had no idea people disliked them. The main thing I knew about Starlings was their murmurations - large swarms of them undulating and swirling in the air. Actually recently a school friend of mine did some sketches of them which were pretty neat: https://www.dougieharley.com/single-post/2017/02/02/Starling...
Starlings aren't so bad except that they're natural mimics. In urban environments that means that they frequently learn to mimic urban noise pollution as part of their bird calls.
Here in NYC, you can have the police tow a car whose alarm goes off too frequently or doesn't shut down after a couple minutes. Not much you can do about a bird near your window mimicking the same sound with praeternatural accuracy every 30 seconds, all day long.
Somebody told me when I was young that in the late 1800s in Ireland (when he was young) that the flocks would be so large that they would block out the sunlight all around. He was not a man prone to exaggeration.
I had the impression they were like sparrows in that they swarm all over food sources and are in particular a scourge for backyard birding because they'll kill off the birds you actually want to see (and consume a ton of seed while they're at it).
On the topic of creating more friendly urban areas for birds, it has been suggested that making the sides of very tall buildings more amenable to raptor nesting (falcon, hawk) that not only would it benefit those species it could help manage pigeon and starling populations.
That said, having had a hawk nesting site near my house there are a lot of feather piles to deal with :-)
some people argue that cats are decimating urban bird population (that is utter garbage of course), so bringing in more predators (who would hunt much higher proportion of healthy vs. ill birds than the cats) may not sit well with such heads.
I used to be down with trying to restore things to pre-Caucasians-in-North-America conditions wherever possible. Now upon seeing that that would take constant and intensive human intervention, and probably still not succeed, I tend to look more toward post-human conditions as the measuring stick.
If all humans suddenly disappeared or stopped intervening, what would the landscape look like or turn into? Conditions would prevail that were affected by everything humans have done to date, but unaffected by any future human action. So for example, blackberry vines, kudzu, ivy, starlings, rats, and such, would take over, at least in some places, at least for a while. Is that bad? If humans disappeared, who would be around to find it bad or good?
Rather than fight it, I have redefined my ideas of "native" and "natural" to match these conditions. Because that's what "nature" is, right? That which happens without human intervention? Except of course tons of intervention has already happened and can't be changed, so the idea is to think about what would happen if the intervention stopped. Keeping endangered species alive or fighting invasives might be termed unsustainable and artificial under that view. I dunno, interesting thought experiment. To me anyway! LOL
>I used to be down with trying to restore things to pre-Caucasians-in-North-America conditions wherever possible.
you'd need at least a 300M bed Mayflower destined for Mars.
>If all humans suddenly disappeared or stopped intervening, what would the landscape look like or turn into? Conditions would prevail that were affected by everything humans have done to date, but unaffected by any future human action. So for example, blackberry vines, kudzu, ivy, starlings, rats, and such, would take over, at least in some places, at least for a while. Is that bad? If humans disappeared, who would be around to find it bad or good?
Chernobyl area. Flourishing nature preserve. Youtube it.
I've often wandered about spreading all species as widely as possible. Kudzu can't survive everywhere and maybe the new North American kangaroos and elephants would like it.
I had a pet starling as a kid. It fell out of its tree when it was a baby, I nursed it back to health, it got feathers and at about 1 year it started mimicking the sound of the doorbell :) All and all, a cool little bird.
My parents are obsessed birders and just about the only time I hear my mom swear is regarding a starling. It makes me wonder why there has never been a general order to hunt as many as possible. If the government paid $4/corpse, for a time, perhaps we'd be rid of them! (As long as we stopped paying when people tried breeding then for money, like the cobra)
Outside of my office window, there are always groups of them starlings chatting about. They get extremely noisy.
Not only they chased away much gentler pigeons, interrupted business negotiations with clients, they managed to pushed one of my designers over the edge who had a mental break down in the office.
Your designer suffers from mental illness. Plenty of people need help. The causes are as complex as the people and I'm pretty sure the birds didn't make him/her ill.
[+] [-] smcl|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] twobyfour|8 years ago|reply
Here in NYC, you can have the police tow a car whose alarm goes off too frequently or doesn't shut down after a couple minutes. Not much you can do about a bird near your window mimicking the same sound with praeternatural accuracy every 30 seconds, all day long.
[+] [-] nthcolumn|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emodendroket|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] optimuspaul|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ChuckMcM|8 years ago|reply
That said, having had a hawk nesting site near my house there are a lot of feather piles to deal with :-)
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] trhway|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdiddly|8 years ago|reply
If all humans suddenly disappeared or stopped intervening, what would the landscape look like or turn into? Conditions would prevail that were affected by everything humans have done to date, but unaffected by any future human action. So for example, blackberry vines, kudzu, ivy, starlings, rats, and such, would take over, at least in some places, at least for a while. Is that bad? If humans disappeared, who would be around to find it bad or good?
Rather than fight it, I have redefined my ideas of "native" and "natural" to match these conditions. Because that's what "nature" is, right? That which happens without human intervention? Except of course tons of intervention has already happened and can't be changed, so the idea is to think about what would happen if the intervention stopped. Keeping endangered species alive or fighting invasives might be termed unsustainable and artificial under that view. I dunno, interesting thought experiment. To me anyway! LOL
[+] [-] trhway|8 years ago|reply
you'd need at least a 300M bed Mayflower destined for Mars.
>If all humans suddenly disappeared or stopped intervening, what would the landscape look like or turn into? Conditions would prevail that were affected by everything humans have done to date, but unaffected by any future human action. So for example, blackberry vines, kudzu, ivy, starlings, rats, and such, would take over, at least in some places, at least for a while. Is that bad? If humans disappeared, who would be around to find it bad or good?
Chernobyl area. Flourishing nature preserve. Youtube it.
[+] [-] undersuit|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dwighttk|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjc50|8 years ago|reply
In the UK, starlings are a protected species..
[+] [-] kefabean|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] weatherlight|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] danschumann|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mabbo|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wizardforhire|8 years ago|reply
http://teachstarlings.societyrne.net/html/intro.htm
[+] [-] xutopia|8 years ago|reply
Little birds tend to be quite tasty and if it is nearly impossible to get rid of them I'd say would be a nice source of protein.
[+] [-] Luc|8 years ago|reply
They taste like quail, apparently.
[+] [-] fwefwwfe|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] yellowapple|8 years ago|reply
[+] [-] towndrunk|8 years ago|reply
They are kind of pests on cattle ranches.
[+] [-] juiyout|8 years ago|reply
Not only they chased away much gentler pigeons, interrupted business negotiations with clients, they managed to pushed one of my designers over the edge who had a mental break down in the office.
[+] [-] michaelmrose|8 years ago|reply