European Starling
European Starlings are very shy birds and get spooked very easy. However when they are in large flocks they can do wonderful things as a whole community moves in unison called Murmuration. Only once I’ve seen it and I it was mind boggling!
Text and photographs are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian 101








Yes, I’ve seen that video – they are amazing birds! I love your pictures of their personalities!
Yes I’ve seen some too! Thanks for the comment Julie! 🙂
Cool pictures. Starlings aren’t particularly shy in Chicago parks. They have beautiful eyes that are hard to see against their dark feathers, but I have found them expressive on the younger birds. I think they manage to have three clutches of offspring a year – at least that’s how many times I can remember counting the “fledgling feed-me chorus.” European Starlings of course are looked down upon because they were imported here but I think they’re extremely intelligent. And of course Mozart had a starling.
They are shy in areas where they are minorities, in your case the Chicago parks have larger Starling population and are more familiarized to urban areas.
Thank you very much for writing an interesting comment Lisa. By the way my all times favorite composer is Sergei Rachmaninoff.
they certainly aren’t shy around our feeders, I must say.
🙂
Look this way…..
Look that way…..
Now let me do the jitterbug!
(couldn’t help myself, lol)
Love that third shot HJ!
If I put the whole series in sequence is like dancing the “Macarena” 🙂
Thanks for your funny comment, I love it!
Love the starling shots!
Thank you Christine! 🙂
Great series! Thanks for sharing.
Thank you! I’m glad you liked it!
They are quite shy indeed around people but can be quite bossy with thr little birds.
I’m sure they can be. Thanks for the comment D. 🙂