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That is amazing to watch!
Someone introduced those birds to the US long ago and they have become a huge pain in many places. They seem to breed so well and so fast. Those flocks there show why. We get a lot of them here in the winter going through the lawn looking for some kind of critters they like, so don't bother me. I do get a kick out of them in the water in the winter. When the water I put out for the birds freezes. I will come home from work and add some and break the ice up for the others to drink. These guys will show up and a bunch of them get in there with the chunks of ice to play in the water for a while. Amazing to watch. Some tough damn birds.
 
I thought Peregrine Falcons were better hunters than that! I didn't watch the video that close, but I didn't see one falcon get any dinner. These falcons need to step up their game. Fun to watch.
 
I thought Peregrine Falcons were better hunters than that! I didn't watch the video that close, but I didn't see one falcon get any dinner. These falcons need to step up their game. Fun to watch.

Some small fish do the same thing in the ocean. The idea being to overwhelm the predator with so many targets they have trouble singling out one. The Falcon will eventually take the slowest and weakest, as designed.
One of the reasons these (Starlings) have become such a problem here, the natural predators do not seem to like them.
We have couple kinds of the small hawks and the falcons here. They are amazing to watch. Now and then a one will take a pigeon. I will find the pile of feathers in the yard where they made a meal of of one :cool:
When they come for the birds at the feeders here the birds do the same thing. Flock together in a bunch trying to keep the bird from singling out any one. Sometimes it works, sometimes one I fattened up makes a good meal :cool:
 
Starlings are hell on our grapes

Blueberries too. There are several farms in the Canby area that contract with a falconer to come up and fly the birds around every day to keep hazing the starlings away. Starlings can eat a huge amount of berries, and contaminate the berries headed for the fresh market. The falconer brings in a air conditioned trailer that houses the birds, and a trailer to stay in. They take the birds out and fly them a couple hours each a day to harass the starlings off the crop. They have several birds and rotate them out every couple hours to keep them fresh.

The falcons are don't eat the starlings, the handlers keep them just a bit hungry and call them back with quail parts. The falcons go up and sit on top of a grain elevator at the farm and the starlings will not come around while they are there, and the falcons will randomly take off and chase the flocks, just for amusement not for food.

The guy then takes the birds down to California to fly them on the grape harvest there, and then comes back up to Oregon to fly on the grape harvest here. It is one of the more cost effective methods to haze them off. Expensive, but blueberry farmer told me the $ 70,000 he pays the falconer for 6 weeks saves him more than triple over the 300 acres of berries he has.
 
Blueberries too. There are several farms in the Canby area that contract with a falconer to come up and fly the birds around every day to keep hazing the starlings away. Starlings can eat a huge amount of berries, and contaminate the berries headed for the fresh market. The falconer brings in a air conditioned trailer that houses the birds, and a trailer to stay in. They take the birds out and fly them a couple hours each a day to harass the starlings off the crop. They have several birds and rotate them out every couple hours to keep them fresh.

The falcons are don't eat the starlings, the handlers keep them just a bit hungry and call them back with quail parts. The falcons go up and sit on top of a grain elevator at the farm and the starlings will not come around while they are there, and the falcons will randomly take off and chase the flocks, just for amusement not for food.

The guy then takes the birds down to California to fly them on the grape harvest there, and then comes back up to Oregon to fly on the grape harvest here. It is one of the more cost effective methods to haze them off. Expensive, but blueberry farmer told me the $ 70,000 he pays the falconer for 6 weeks saves him more than triple over the 300 acres of berries he has.
I don't know if the touchy feely did away with it but E WA used to use huge traps for them. Giant cage with some kind of lure. Birds would go in and could not get out. They would then hook a vehicle up to it and gas them all. Have not heard of them in a long time so don't know if they made them stop doing this here.
 
This is the worthless bastard who introduced this pestilence to N. America . I shoot them on-sight whenever I can .

Eugene Schieffelin - Wikipedia

.
I'm sure he thought he had a good reason. He was probably from Europe some where and bringing some to America kept him from getting homesick! They have a long sharp beak and are very aggressive with all the native species. They will fight to clear other birds out of nesting sites and break the native birds eggs. Another thing they do that just sucks is they will lay their own eggs in another native birds nest. The Starling chicks grow much faster than the others in nest and will kill the other chicks. Does that just suck or what? I also fight them every spring trying to make holes under the eaves of my house for nesting. If there ever was a bird to hate, Starlings deserve first place!
 
I'm sure he thought he had a good reason. He was probably from Europe some where and bringing some to America kept him from getting homesick!

Uh, no. Native Noo Yorker, born and bred.

January 29, 1827
New York City, New York, U.S.

Unless, of course, there is another New York City, New York, U.S. somewhere in Prussia, Saxony, Brandenburg, Mecklinburg, Bavaria et al........................
 
Growing up starlings were the prize we all tried to bag with our BB and later on pellet guns. So wily they were, we rarely did bring one down.

The daisy BB gun wouldn't do it. Later I got a crosman powermaster 760 pump, BB/.177 pellet gun. That would generate the velocity to do the job. Later I got hold of what back then was king of pellet rifles, the sheridan 5mm pump. That pellet gun would obliterate any bird I could manage to hit, still got it.

Later I was able to rain hell fire down upon the starlings when I was gifted [Christmas] my first real gun, a single shot .410, still have that shotgun also.

Starlings really are beautiful birds up close.

European-starling.jpg
 
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