I have been seeing little feeding flocks of starlings around town, and I
wondered why they were in flocks now, in the midst of the breeding season.
The question was just answered for me.

I have a pair of starlings nesting just above my office windows, so I can
watch what they're doing. I'm looking out on a big courtyard covered
mostly with lawn, and it appears to be a favored feeding place for
neighborhood starlings. When birds leave the nest hole above me and fly
out onto the lawn, they very commonly (not sure if it's invariably) join
little flocks of starlings already feeding. There is plenty of open
starlingless lawn, yet the starlings choose to feed rather close together.
Apparently they are territorial when nesting but social when feeding, not a
common combination in passerine birds.

The starling flocks are by no means stable, just birds constantly coming
and going in all directions and forming and reforming flocklets. I just
watched one of "my" starlings fly down and land right next to another, and
they fed side by side for many seconds. I thought perhaps the bird it
joined was its mate, but no, that bird then flew away. The lawn is
obviously a rich feeding ground, as birds are coming to the nest constantly
with prey. Interestingly, one or more House Sparrows joins a little flock
at intervals, and I think the sparrows may be stealing prey from the
starlings! I'm fairly sure one darted up to a starling, grabbed something
from it, and flew away.

So if you see starlings feeding in little flocks, it doesn't mean they've
already finished with breeding or don't intend to breed; they are just
being starlings. This is a very watchable and interesting bird, and I hope
no one ignores them just because they don't like them.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html