Hmmm? An Anarchy of Starlings? It may work.

Or possibly these birds are demonstrating a hereto now never conjectured
herding instinct. In the case of the larger Anarchies, who knows what the
effect of 100,000s of tiny feet landing and taking off might be on their
terrified prey. It might also appear that they must break step, so to
speak, when doing this so that they don't generate a fundamental resonant
frequency that could trigger large seismic disturbances.

Or yet again. It is always nice to have an extra pair of eyes around and
if there is enough food around.....eat it and worry about territory later.

Roger Craik
Maple Ridge

PS Don't mind me. I was up all night with very little sleep and this just
came out. <GRIN>

WAYNE WEBER wrote:

> Dennis (and Tweeters),
>
> In regard to the apparent flocking of feeding Starlings, there is a
> possibility that you may not have considered-- that the apparent flock
> is not really a flock at all, but merely a loose grouping of birds,
> each of which is deciding where to feed independently, based on where
> it has had best success in finding food-- not based on whether or not
> there are other birds nearby. In other words, such a group would be a
> passive "aggregation" of birds rather than an active "congregation",
> in which the birds are attracted to other feeding birds. You agree
> that "flocks" seen in the breeding season are much smaller and less
> cohesive than those seen in the winter. I suspect that predator
> avoidance is the main advantage of large winter flocks of Starlings.
>
> There has been research in the Netherlands which shows that individual
> Starlings decide where to feed based on their success in finding food.
> After a few visits to one patch of lawn which result in poor prey
> capture rates, a Starling will switch to another patch of lawn, or
> even try a totally different area up to half a mile away. On the other
> hand, if the capture rate is high, the bird will keep returning to the
> same area. The presence of other Starlings may or may not be a factor.
> (This work was done in the breeding season.)
>
> Burton Guttman's comment that a flock might "scare up" more insects
> than individual birds might be applicable to blackbirds or cowbirds,
> but not to Starlings. Starlings feed mainly by probing their long
> bills into the ground at random, and pulling out insect larvae or
> other invertebrates when they encounter them. Insects found on the
> surface are not nearly as important as subterranean insects. However,
> a Starling could still gain an advantage by joining a "flock" of other
> Starlings which had already discovered that Patch A of lawn had a much
> higher density of insect larvae than Patch B.
>
> As you may know, I did some research on Starling feeding ecology (and
> other aspects of their biology) many years ago as part of my M.Sc.
> thesis. I am still fascinated by many aspects of their biology.
>
> Wayne C. Weber
> Kamloops, BC
> contopus at home.com
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Dennis Paulson <dpaulson at ups.edu>
> To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, May 10, 2001 11:12 AM
> Subject: starling behavior
>
> 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
> >
> >