ANDY DALTON of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust reveals the secrets of starlings - and where to watch a murmuration in North Yorkshire this winter…
Common starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are one of Yorkshire’s most familiar birds, and yet many don’t fully appreciate their dazzling qualities.
Starlings have fantastic plumage which changes from a glossy green, black and purple sheen (with bright pink legs and a bright yellow bill) during summer, to a stunning dark speckled white in winter.
They live for an average of five years, but the oldest ever recorded was over 20 years old.
A singing male bird will produce a whole array of sounds, each subtly different from the next. This unusual melody was once described to me as a full English breakfast being cooked on a frying pan - spitting, popping and bubbling sounds! Starlings are great mimics too, sometimes copying human-produced sounds such as alarms and even mobile phone rings.
There are almost two million starlings in the UK; though this sounds like a lot, numbers have actually declined by over 60 per cent in the last 40 years. In fact, the decline has been so sharp that starlings have now been added to the Red Data List of species of most conservation concern.
No single reason can explain this decline, but habitat and food loss are key factors. Starlings prefer to feed in open areas, with rich soil full of insects like cranefly larvae, spiders, moths, and earthworms. It’s these sorts of open areas which are being lost every day to development and urban sprawl.
Once the autumn migration comes around, our native starlings are quickly joined by a huge influx of their relatives from across the North Sea. Escaping south away from the deep cold, some birds travel from as far away as the Ural Mountains in Russia. And it is during this mass arrival that the starlings’ famous, magical spectacle begins to be performed – the murmuration.
No one knows for certain why starlings put on such mesmerising aerial acrobatics, but avoiding predators through safety in numbers is one common theory. These dazzling dances attract more and more birds as they progress, so another theory is that the murmuration is a way for birds to ‘share’ news of the best local feeding areas.
Of course, describing a starling murmuration rarely does it justice – the best thing is to see it for yourself. One of the best places in North Yorkshire to see a starling murmuration is Ripon City Wetlands nature reserve. The birds start to gather around thirty minutes from sunset and can be seen performing across the reserve until they descend into the reedbeds to roost. Watching a many thousand strong starling murmuration ripple and dance across a dusky pink winter sky is one of nature’s best wildlife spectacles, and a wonderful way to welcome in the New Year.
Want to help starlings where you live? Like most birds, starlings can struggle to find enough to eat during the colder months. Make sure your bird feeder is well stocked throughout the winter with nuts and seeds. As they’re larger birds, starlings can handle larger food like peanuts – and will go mad for high-energy fat balls!
Yorkshire Wildlife Trust is aware of several potential cases of avian flu being present at Ripon City Wetlands and is working with Defra on the removal of the dead birds. Please never approach a sick or dead bird for your own safety.
What do starlings get up to the rest of the year?
During the colder months, we’re delighted with mesmerising starling murmurations. But what do starlings get up to the rest of the year?
• January - March: You can see starling murmurations as late as March, as starlings continue to forage and roost in large flocks.
• April - June: Our winter migrants now depart back to their breeding areas in Europe. Meanwhile, resident birds quickly set up a territory and the male puts on his noisy and quirky display to entice a female. The longer and more complex the song, the more successful the courtship will be! Up to three clutches of eggs can be laid during the breeding season.
• July - September: Large crèches often form, made up of young birds and adults from a neighbourhood. Adults start to moult into winter plumage and young birds quickly become independent.
• October - December: Migrants start to arrive on the east coast and numbers build up quickly. These birds quickly move inland to find the best feeding areas available and the fabulous murmurations begin at regular roosting sites, often continuing early into the following year.
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