Darling Starling
The European Starlings parents and their babies are practically taken over the feeders and deck to conduct their “parenting academy”. The parents teach their brood how to eat on their own from a feeder.
I have noticed that Starlings are very organized, make smart decisions to accomplish what they set to do. In this case, they are teaching the babies to use their own bills in order to pick the seeds they’d like to eat, right from the feeder, not the mother’s or father’s bills anymore.
I’m starting to see more of the baby starlings going alone or with some of the siblings to get their meals without the company of the parents.
It’s has been quite an experience to see the European Starlings having bred a new family in my backyard for the first time.
Photo Gallery
Text and photographs © HJ Ruiz – Avian101
H.J. Ruiz - Avian101 
Great post.
Thank you very much Victor! 🙂
Glad the parenting is going so well, do you give them tips?
Only once in a while! 🙂 Thanks Susan!
They must certainly feel very at home with you! Really lovely 🙂
Thanks Iris! I hope so! 🙂
I caught up with you again today. I think the things I like most in your blog are the accompanying photographs I can study and the things I learn, which is important for an amateur bird watcher. I didn’t know the term brood parasites or that they use the nests of others. I didn’t know that chickadees catch insects in the air. I always thought these delightful birds were fidgety, never staying long in one place; now I know they are eating. I was amazed to see a turkey buzzard looking magnificent; they are usually not portrayed that way. And finally, I was caught by the title Darling Starling and then pleased to have seen the same “teaching to eat” procedure you write about. All in all, a most productive visit with you today.
Thanks AB! I’m so glad to have been of help to you with my post. My mission is to let people know that birds are incredible creatures. Your comment is so precious to me, it gives me encouragement to do better. 🙂
I enjoy them more and more. compared with the genteel others — especially the doves — they are wack. as gorgeous as they are swarming, as a collective at my feeders anyway, (the hanging suet one which requires acrobatics on their part) they are bossy, cantankerous, in each other’s beaks and yet unable to be apart. kind of like my family come to think of it.
Like any other creature in the world it has positive points and negative points. Not one is perfect! But we are chugging along anyway! Thanks for sharing Lance! 🙂
It is always a pleasure to see a family of young birds. Yours are delightful.
Thanks Tom! 🙂
I like starlings very much! Thanks for these lovely shots HJ.
You’re welcome Clare! 🙂
That’s a great story, and I love the family photos 🙂 Looking at the young ones, I think I saw one today with a parent in the salt marsh. Now I know how they look, thanks H. J.!
Thank you very much Tiny! 🙂
They sure do provide endless entertainment, don’t they? 🙂 Of course, we can laugh, we aren’t the ones trying to keep all those mouths filled. LOL
If you have had children, it’s not different than the way birds proceed. Thank you Amy! 🙂