Starlings sleep less during summer and full-moon nights

MARCH 19, 2020

by University of Groningen

Researchers of the University of Groningen and the Max Planck Institute have found that starlings sleep five hours less per night during the summer. Compared to winter, the birds take more mid-day naps and live under higher sleep pressure. During full-moon nights, starlings sleep around two hours less than usual. The findings of the study were published in the journal Current Biology on 19 March.

Sleep regulation in starlings is highly flexible and sensitive to environmental factors, according to a new pioneering study conducted by researchers of the UG's Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES), the Avian Sleep Group at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology (Germany) and the Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich (Switzerland).

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Hundreds of dead birds found in mystery mass death

11 December 2019

Hundreds of birds found dead on a north Wales road are to be tested to discover how they died.

About 225 starlings were discovered with blood on their bodies in a lane on Anglesey, North Wales Police said.

Dafydd Edwards, whose partner found the birds, said it was as if "they had dropped down dead from the sky".

The Animal and Plant Health Agency has collected them for testing and will examine whether they could have been poisoned.

North Wales Police said it was investigating the "very strange" discovery and has appealed for information.

"We don't know how it has happened," said PC Dewi Evans.

Mr Edwards, 41, said his partner Hannah Stevens first saw the birds alive as she went to an appointment on Tuesday afternoon.

"She said she saw hundreds of them flying over and thought it looked amazing but on her way back around an hour later they were all dead in the road.

Ms Stevens reported seeing the birds eating something in the road.

"I counted 150 last night but I gave up as there's just hundreds of them littered everywhere.

"It's as if they just dropped down dead from the sky."

A spokesman for the RSPB said: "This is obviously very concerning for us and we will await the test results.

"It would be inappropriate for us to speculate as to how they have died."

Source

Scottish Starlings struggle

Published by surfbirds on May 18, 2019 courtesy of BTO, surfbirds archive

In a report published earlier this month, Scottish Starling numbers have fallen by almost a third, following an alarming trend that is mirrored across the UK.

According to the Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) report, the number of breeding Starlings in Scotland has fallen by 28% between 1995 and 2017; across the UK they have declined by 52%. When watching Starling murmurations during the winter months it is easy to think that all is well with this familiar species, but a large percentage of the birds that make up these swirling flocks come from countries outside of the UK, some from as far away as Russia.

The reasons for this decline aren’t fully understood. With breeding success increasing across the UK, falling survival rates – especially of first-year birds appear to explain the decline. The loss, or changing management of grasslands that provide Starlings with invertebrate food could be the main ecological cause of these changes, but this needs further research.

As we make our homes more energy efficient we tend to block the holes into roof spaces, reducing the number of nesting holes for species such as Starlings. By providing a nest box with a 45mm entrance hole, you could relieve some of the struggles these birds are facing.

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Starlings disappearing from Scotland and UK

'Mixed fortunes' for birds.

ILONA AMOS

Published: 06:00Friday 03 May 2019

Scotland’s starling and rook populations have fallen dramatically over the past two decades, according to a new report.

Surveys show numbers of starlings north of the border were down by 28 per cent in 2017 compared to 1995, with a further 12 per cent loss in the past year.

This is part of a worrying UK-wide decline of 52 per cent since 1995.

Rook numbers in Scotland have fallen by 37 per cent over the same period.

Ornithologists do not know exactly what is driving the declines but say changes in the use of grasslands could be a major factor.

Other bird species that continue to cause concern include the greenfinch, which has declined by massive 66 per cent over the 22-year period, and the curlew, with a drop of 61 per cent.

Swifts have also experienced a major fall in numbers, with a 28 per cent decline in the past year and an overall loss of 59 per cent since 1995.

The latest figures show a much more positive picture for species, which have seen numbers soar.

Chiffchaffs have increased nearly eight-fold since 1995, while great spotted woodpeckers and blackcaps have more than quadrupled.

However, all three species were scarcer in 2018 than 2017.

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Falcons drafted in to scare off defecating starlings from Rome

Plan to clean up Italian capital condemned as barbaric by animal rights campaigners

Angela Giuffrida in Rome

Fri 23 Nov 2018 12.09 GMTLast modified on Fri 23 Nov 2018 12.32 GMT

Authorities in Rome have enlisted falcons to scare off defecating starlings, as the Italian capital plays host to a growing menagerie of animals, including gulls, wild boars and sheep.

Starlings pass through the city in late autumn as they migrate to warmer climes for winter, soiling its cobblestones and riverbanks with sticky guano and bothering residents and tourists, who often use umbrellas to avoid the droppings.

Part of the road that runs along the Tiber River was closed earlier this week because the birds had left so much excrement, prompting authorities to call on a team of falconers. It is unclear when the birds of prey will take to the skies, but their job will be to frighten the starlings away from their nesting spots, such as the trees along the streets.

The Rome department in charge of environmental sustainability said the measure constituted a “cruelty-free, ecological and natural solution” to the starling problem.

Animal rights activists condemned the initiative as “barbaric”. “The environmental sustainability council says that using hawks to fight starlings is ‘cruelty-free, ecological and natural’ – these are shameful words that justify what is a cruel and anachronistic method,” said Rinaldo Sidoli, a communication manager for Animalisti Italiani.

He added that the deterrent violated a municipal rule which prohibits the “release into the environment of birds, except those treated by authorised wild animal recovery centres”.

An initiative involving falcons in 2015 also drew criticism. Previous city authorities experimented with playing recordings of starling distress calls in an attempt to get the birds, who tend to descend on the city at dusk, to flee.

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Dead and dying birds rain down in unexplained occurrence in Delta

The remains of 42 European starlings have been collected and sent to a lab in nearby Abbotsford in hopes of determining why they died.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Updated: September 21, 2018

A B.C. man who witnessed dozens of birds falling from the sky in Delta says he was horrified by the sight.

“I called it birdageddon. It was really, really creepy,” Kevin Beech said Friday.

The self-described animal lover was driving with a friend just off a busy highway in the community of Tsawwassen on Sept. 14 when the birds started hitting the ground around his vehicle.

“They literally dove face-first into the pavement, it was brutal,” said Beech.

Environment Canada wildlife biologist Laurie Wilson confirmed the remains of 42 European starlings have been collected.

“It’s unusual to have this many birds found dead at the same time in the same place,” she said.

The remains of the birds have been sent to the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture’s animal health lab in nearby Abbotsford. Wilson said preliminary results could be available by the middle of next week, if additional tests are not required.

A network of organizations including the Canadian Wildlife Service and officials with the provincial ministries of Environment and Forests are investigating.

The sight of birds plummeting to earth is not unknown, said Wilson.

“You’d be surprised at how often people call and say they’ve seen birds falling dead out of the sky. It does happen. People report it. I haven’t seen it, but people report it.”

Beech, however, is still rattled by what he saw, comparing it to a scene from an Alfred Hitchcock film.

“It was horrible,” he said.

“Like Alfred Hitchcock creepy.”

Source  

UPDATE

Mystery solved for dozens of birds plummeting to death from the sky in B.C.

THE CANADIAN PRESS

Updated: September 26, 2018

VANCOUVER — A natural occurrence is behind the unusual deaths of about 40 starlings that plummeted to the ground in Delta, B.C., earlier this month.

When Vancouver resident Kevin Beech witnessed the birds falling from the sky, he called it “birdageddon,” saying it was really creepy.

But a statement from Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Wildlife Service says the flock of birds was being chased by a much larger bird just before the starlings hit the ground.

The service says the cloud of birds swooped toward the ground and then pulled back up but the tail end of the swarm didn’t and about 200 birds hit the ground, killing 42 starlings on impact.

A veterinarian pathologist with the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture conducted a necropsy and found the cause of death was a chest injury and there was no evidence of underlying infectious disease or intoxication.

The service says European starlings can form very large flocks and they execute amazing swooping and whirling patterns, called a murmuration, to avoid a predatory bird.

Source  

Male birds sing less to females on antidepressants from eating worms in sewage

Date:  August 6, 2018

Source:  University of York

Summary:

Female starlings who have ingested dilute concentrations of antidepressants while feeding on worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants appear to be less attractive to the opposite sex.

During courtship male starlings sing less to females who have been fed dilute concentrations of antidepressants, according to a new study led by the University of York.

The researchers studied the birds at sewage works where birds flock to feed all year round. But the worms, maggots and flies at sewage treatment plants have been found to contain many different pharmaceuticals, including Prozac.

The study showed that dilute concentrations of Prozac similar to those measured at sewage works appeared to make female starlings less attractive to the opposite sex.

In 2016, there were 64.7 million antidepressant items prescribed in the UK. Some of these compounds are stable in the environment and break down slowly once they've passed through our bodies and into sewage-treatment systems.

Dr Kathryn Arnold and Sophia Whitlock, from the Environment Department at the University of York, have been studying the effects of environmental levels of fluoxetine (commonly known as Prozac) on starlings for a number of years. They have discovered changes in the behaviour of these starlings that could put birds at risk in the wild.

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“How 40,000 starlings go to bed in less than a minute” – amazing moment huge flock drops from sky

By Paul McGowan -

February 20, 2018

A REMARKABLE video shows the moment a murmuration of 40,000 starlings evaporates as they drop out of the sky at the same moment.

Retired water worker Simon Waters, 61, captured the stunning scene at the RSPB Minsmere Nature Reserve, in Suffolk.

His footage shows the birds create incredibly dense shapes at one moment and seem to fill the sky the next.

But the clip is really notable for how the starlings suddenly and in unison land to roost for the night.

Readon and watch video 

Mysterious death of dozens of birds leaves biologist perplexed

A mystery is unfolding in Shasta County hundreds of birds are found dead along Interstate 5. A wildlife biologist says this is highly unusual.

And Jim Wiegand is troubled.

“I’ve studied wildlife my entire life and I’ve never seen this, never seen this,” he said. “It's highly unusual.”

The wildlife biologist is trying to unlock a mystery that mystery lies in the form of dozens of dead birds all gathered within a 200 yard radius in the northbound lanes of Interstate 5, on the side of the road, and in the grass just south of the Mountain Gate exit in Shasta County.

“The majority of them are right in this area,” Wiegand said. “Only one or two across the center-divide on the other side of the road there's almost nothing that's another unusual thing.”

Wiegand drives this stretch of road all the time and, as a graduate of UC Berkeley, he's written numerous stories about birds.

“I don't see any signs of trauma disease,” he said. “And they are all in one tight location.”

As he picks up carcasses he plans to have examined, he wonders what could have happened.

“If they were all hit by a semi and a big group was crossing the road, where’s the signs of trauma,” he asked. “These guys look in perfect condition. Where’s the busted up smashed bodies? Where are the cripples? They're not all going to be dead, birds with broken wings can travel for miles on the ground.”

Many articles have been written about a phenomenon just like this one all over the country.

Starlings are considered a pest. They have been poisoned in the past. Wiegand said he doesn't believe that’s what happened here.

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Love of Shakespeare sparked a starling invasion

Species spread out after fan of the Bard imported 100

By Ernie Cowan | 3:46 p.m. March 18, 2016

Some might call the European starling an obnoxious interloper, while the more refined bird lover may refer to it as the “Shakespeare Bird.”

However you view this ubiquitous black bird, there is no denying that it has had an impact since its unique introduction to America in 1890.

Long before the scientific world became concerned with the impacts of introducing nonnative species, a total of 100 starlings were released in New York City’s Central Park. Eugene Schieffelin was a Shakespeare lover who wanted to bring to America as many birds as possible mentioned by the Bard in his poems.

Shakespeare lovers will know that there are frequent references to wrens, owls, larks and more than 60 other species in his works. The starling was mentioned just once in the play “Henry IV.”

At no small expense, Schieffelin initially imported 60 starlings and released them on a March day in Central Park. A year later, he introduced an additional 40 birds.

They liked their new home and soon multiplied. Within 50 years, they had spread to every state, and today they number an estimated 200 million.

The first starlings were reported in San Diego County in the late 1940s, according to Philip Unitt, author of the San Diego County Bird Atlas.

In addition to competing with native species for food and nesting locations, there have been estimates that starlings cause at least $800 million in crop damage annually.

Much of the damage they cause is the result of their concentrations. Massive flocks of hundreds of thousands of birds are known as murmurations, and while beautiful, they can be destructive, even dangerous to aircraft, with more than 800 incidents reported by the Federal Aviation Administration.

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Starlings mysteriously drowning en masse in garden ponds

Bird experts are baffled about why starlings are drowning mysteriously in ponds

25 Nov 2015

Starlings are mysteriously drowning en masse in garden ponds across Britain.

Renowned for flying in enormous flocks - sometimes more than one million strong - they have been observed in recent years to perish in groups of 10 or more.

Now researchers are trying to work out what's behind the phenomenon.

Conservationists believe the "inexperience" of young birds in negotiating water - along with their friendly nature - could be behind the mystery.

They have suggested homeowners supply sloping exits or ramps in water features so the vulnerable birds can get in and out safely.

Experts say it is unusual for wild birds to drown and on the occasions it happens normally involves an individual rather than multiple numbers.

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Rome enlists Texan falcons to tackle problem of starling droppings

Cars, streets and the odd pedestrian have been showered with faeces

Rome is hoping five Texan falcons will be able scare away the thousands of starlings that are showering cars, streets, and the odd pedestrian with their droppings.

Along the banks of the River Tiber, in particular, where the huge flocks congregate in the trees, stationary cars and bikes are often covered in their faeces. Roads are left slippery and treacherous.

So serious is the problem that the city’s authorities are resorting to the falcons to deter the starlings from massing in the city, to which they are attracted as a safe place to roost. 

Sabrina Alfonsi, president of Rome’s central municipality, said a three-day trial of the birds of prey proved successful, so she is now looking to continue with the deterrent.

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From starving chicks come fat birds

A poor start in life creates differences in eating behavior modeled in starlings

Date:  November 6, 2015

Source:  Newcastle University

A Newcastle University study has shown that baby birds that have a difficult start in life grow to be fatter and greedier than their more fortunate siblings.

The researchers, led by Professor Melissa Bateson and Dr Clare Andrews, discovered that stress and difficulties as a chick made a long lasting impression on a starling's relationship with food.

The study, published in the journal Animal Behaviour and funded by the BBSRC, showed that the smallest chicks in European starling families changed their adult feeding behaviour, resulting in a fatter body composition in the fully developed birds.

Dr Andrews, of the Newcastle University Centre for Behaviour and Evolution said: "Building up body fat reserves as a safeguard against times of potential future famine is an evolved survival mechanism. What we have shown is that birds that had struggled against larger brothers or sisters for food early on were keener on finding food and tended to overeat when they became adults."

"This study may also teach us something about ourselves as surprisingly, there's evidence that obesity is common in people lacking a reliable supply of food. Perhaps people too have evolved to eat more and take more interest in food if worried where their next meal will come from."

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Tim Sexton: Starlings are now a conservation concern

By Nottingham Post  |  Posted: November 14, 2015

Returning to the UK after a week's holiday  in the Czech Republic, I was treated to a close-up wildlife experience that I had not witnessed for some time – a flock of starlings less than a few feet away from me.

These incredibly colourful birds seem black at a distance, but it is only when you see them at close quarters that you can truly appreciate their colourful winter plumage; glossy black feathers with iridescent green and purple tones and white speckled tips.

Watching so many of these birds in the built-up surroundings of Luton Airport, it was hard to believe that this is a species that is in trouble. Despite coming second in a recent survey of the top 10 common garden birds, the number of starlings breeding in the UK have plummeted by some 80% since 1979. As a result this species has now been added to the red-list of Birds of Conservation  Concern.

Read more: 

Murmuration of 1,000 clay starlings 'flown' across Bristol Downs

17 October 2015 

A flock of 1,000 clay starlings on wooden poles has been "flown" across the Downs in Bristol.

The Bristol Murmuration was sculpted by people from Henleaze, Stoke Bishop and Westbury-on-Trym to highlight the dramatic decline of the species.

Zoe Camron, the artist leading the project, said the "wonderful array" of birds included "very exotic-looking starlings" as well as green finches.

The murmuration will be on display on Durdham Downs until 25 October.

Once a common garden bird, starling numbers have fallen dramatically since the 1970s.

Despite the declining population, thousands of the birds can be spotted each winter flying together and creating mesmerising patterns called 'murmurations'.

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Starling slaughter leaves northern Nevada awash with rotting birds

‘It was like a scene from Hitchcock’s The Birds’ as 1m starlings descend on state

Federal government poisons birds to protect livestock from disease

Associated Press in Reno

Tuesday 24 March 2015 19.35 GMTLast modified on Tuesday 24 March 201520.38 GMT

Land owners surprised to discover tens of thousands of dead birds across the high desert are criticising the federal government over a mass killing of starlings in northern Nevada.

The US Department of Agriculture said a pesticide was used to destroy the birds to prevent the spread of disease to dairy cows.

Some area residents, however, say the government should have done more to alert the public and to dispose of the dead birds.

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TWRA testing for cause of highway bird deaths

By JAY POWELL

jpowell@c-dh.net

SPRING HILL — On Monday, 60 starlings were found dead on U.S. Highway 31 near the Saturn Parkway access ramp, and the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency is searching for a cause.

One theory is the birds could have been run over by a vehicle, but what has TWRA officials scratching their heads was how it could have happened in such large numbers, agency spokesman Doug Markham said. TWRA officers say they have a pizza delivery truck driver who claims to have hit the birds, and is currently being investigated.

“Even if there’s a guy locally that said he thought he may have hit them, we’re still going to send the birds off for laboratory work to see if they were run over or if something odd might have happened to them,” Markham said. “So we took about half a dozen birds that were still in pretty good shape and sent them to a lab for analysis.”

Although some of the birds were a few feet off of the road, they weren’t scattered far enough to assume they couldn’t have been hit by an oncoming vehicle, especially a large truck.

- See more at:

Watch: Starlings swoop and loop in a breathtaking bird ballet

Welsh winter weather often involves descriptions of dark clouds forming over the fields, woodlands and reedbeds of Wales.

But these clouds filmed this week over Cardiff Bay are no ordinary clouds. They take your breath away!

Thousands of starlings come together at this time of year to provide one of the most breathtaking wildlife spectacles..

This congregation or murmuration was seen over the Cardiff Bay Wetlands Reserve

The reason for the extraordinary spectacle is not definitively known, with theories ranging from a defence mechanism against predators to attracting more birds to join their roost.

Read on and watch video .....

Starlings put on spectacular show on Brighton seafront

Starlings put on spectacular show on Brighton seafront

First published 06:00 Tuesday 30 December 2014 in News

Last updated 1 hour agoby Henry Holloway, Reporter

BIRD boffins say now is the best time of year to see the spectacular starlings’ aerial displays on Brighton seafront.

The RSPB has said the starling murmurations are “not-to-be missed” and the Palace Pier is one of the best places in the country to witness the swooping flock.

The murmurations can involve hundreds of thousands of starlings gathering noisily together at dusk before performing an extraordinary wheeling and swooping in unison.

At this time of year the starling numbers are boosted by migrating arrivals from continental Europe to spend the winter months here.

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Birdwatch: Bid to understand the flight of the starlings

By Bill Teale

Published on the 29 November 2014 

Every autumn and winter, thousands of starlings flock together and swirl across the sky in one of nature’s most dramatic spectacles.

Birders visiting the RSPB’s Blacktoft Sands reserve near Goole to watch marsh and hen harriers coming in towards dusk have been entertained by the spectacle of an estimated 170,000 starlings giving this flying display as they come in to roost a little further down river at Alkborough Flats.

Why starlings perform these displays is not fully understood.

This winter the Society of Biology and University of Gloucestershire have launched a national starling murmuration survey to try and find out why they form and how long they last before the birds plunge down to roost.

It’s also hoped that information can be provided to help stem the decline in starling numbers; 66 per cent since the mid-1970s.

Older readers will recall the huge numbers that used to gather in city centres, much to the ire of local councils, now these are a thing of the past and the remaining starling roosts are in woods and reed beds.

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