Subject: Starling cavity nesting
Date: Aug 6 17:32:28 1999
From: Jack Bowling - jbowling at direct.ca


Picking up on what both Don and Jack wrote re. starlings nesting habits; it
has become very disturbing to us as more and more starlings have invaded our
property in Edmonds and we have not degraded our natural surroundings one
iota in the 13 yrs. we've lived here. What we have kept notes on is the
tremendous increase in starlings and crows and the slight, yet steady
decline in the band-tailed pigeons and woodpecker species, esp. flickers.

We have fed as many as 37 pigeons shortly after fledging and as few as 8
during migration. A number of birds leave for a short time if the weather is
very bad, but they apparantly don,t go very far. Since the crows have been
nesting in the same fir trees and maple trees and preying on the young
pigeons our population is down to around 20, give or take a couple. (We did
lose a sick adult to a fine female Cooper's 2 days ago too).

More to the point, starlings; when we first moved here in '87 we had no
starlings that we noticed, but that could have been because it was October
and maybe they had flown the coop, so to speak. We did have several standing
dead snags of fir and hemlock and one cedar that were riddled with holes
(cavities) and looked like they had been used for nesting earlier in the
year. We also later found out that at least flickers were roosting in some
of cavities because one of the snags blew over in a storm in December and
the impact killed a female yellow-shafted and a young hibred (salmon
colored) flicker. They were both still warm when I removed them, actually
the young one was on the ground next to the tree and a large whole.

Anyway, when spring arrived and the woodpeckers, esp. flickers, starting
drilling everything in sight we noticed a few starlings watching the cavity
making and trying to seize every hole that became complete. Jump to today,
we have as many as 30 starlings at our feeders and water holes and in almost
every cavity in every tree! Also this is the second year in a row the
Pileateds have not nested in our yard even tho they still rarely vist our
feeders and yard.

To understand how dramatic the change has been we used to often get downies,
hairies, Pils., flickers galore, RBSS and so on. Not to mention both chicks,
nuthatches etc. While we still see all those species and they do nest here
their numbers are down considerably. Yes, we understand there could be other
factors, but there doesn't seem to be as we've watched pretty closely. We
have seen the starlings chase and kill many different kinds of birds esp.
young and harrass the adults into leaving the nest and then the starlings
throw out the young or destroy the eggs.

Finally, yes they also nest in and around the transformers and lights. I've
cleaned out several nest boxes on the Snohomish also that had starlings in
them that were put up for purple martins and swallows. In our case we have
not made our place starling friendly, but it hasn't mattered they have taken
over anyway. For those of you that think we should accept these birds as a
natural occurance are sadly misinformed. I for one would do almost anything
to rid my trees of these birds and their destructive behavior.

Darryl <birds at cmc.net>




Dan B. wrote -

<<< I wish urban areas and forest clearings were the only places
starlings flourish. Starlings are cavity nesters, and evict many bird
species who live in some kinds of forested areas. >>>

Picking up on what Don wrote, there has been a noticeable trend over
the past several years for the starlings around Prince George here to
nest in the cavity formed where streetlight supports bolt onto telephone
poles, also a favorite of W. Kingbirds in the dry interior of BC and
WA. In fact, in the more urban areas it seems that they now prefer this
rather than a tree cavity. This appears to have taken some of the
pressure off other species which would historically compete for
cavities.

Has anyone else noticed this or is it a local phenomenon?

--
Jack Bowling
Prince George, BC
jbowling at direct.ca