You can see various videos of starlings, and people are feeding them and treating them like pets or other birds. Many people think they are simply cute birds without knowing anything about them. However, people need to educate themselves about starlings, as they are basically cockroaches with wings. They do NOT belong in the U.S., and are categorized as a nuisance to society, pests to the environment, and are a threat to native birds. As a result, they are one of the few birds not protected in the U.S. by laws, or even the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
Starlings are vicious birds that harass and scare native birds off from feeding sites. They are a major threat to the natural habitat of many birds, such as woodpeckers, martins, barnswallows, waxwings, flickers, jays, and song birds such as grosbeaks. Starlings will even attack nests, eggs, and young chicks of other species. (There are great examples of nasty starling attacks here on YouTube.) Starlings have voracious apetites, and not only crowd out other birds at feeders, but require bird watchers to put out food more frequently for native birds in effort to prevent food shortages caused by starlings.
Unfortunately, European starlings were brought over to the U.S. from Europe (and released to Central Park in NYC) back in the late 1800’s, and they have spread like the plague ever since. The situation is not the starling’s fault, but nonetheless, it does not change the fact that starlings must still be effectively dealt with.
There have been many attempts to eliminate the starling problem by traps, but most starlings are smart enough to avoid them, and if native birds get caught in the trap, then they must be released unharmed. As a result, traps are not effective at eliminating starling problems, and they are more likely to interfere with native birds. Others have tried to use sirens and other ridiculous noise contraptions to get rid of them, but such measures are anemic and pathetic, as starlings simply get used to the noise. Such noises are more likely to disturb your neighbors than they are the starlings. What little effect sirens or other noises will have on starlings will also be equally effective at scaring off native birds, and therefore, are highly ineffective at eliminating starling problems. Even if sirens and other noise contraptions were even remotely effective, the problem would only be swept under the rug, as the starlings simply move on to wreak havoc in another neighborhood. Some have tried to get rid of starlings by putting poison in bird food, but this should be avoided, as poison would kill off native birds as well, and really would not be a humane way to get rid of starlings.
Moreover, none of these solutions actually eliminate the threat of starlings anyway. What makes things even more challenging, are scenarios where people are putting out food out for native birds and squirrels. As if the situation could not be worse, starlings also have multiple clutches per year, and lay many eggs, allowing starlings to overrun food supply and peaceful birds, while starling population growth destabilizes the natural habitat.
I enjoy feeding and watching birds as much as the next person, but starlings must be dealt with head on. The only effective and humane way to rid starlings from neighborhoods is to shoot them. However, most people are uninformed and / or incapable of dealing with starlings.
I use a .22 cal. Condor, and a shroud to eliminate report. My rifle is scoped and zeroed for 60 yards, but I use a laser for quick target acquisition at shorter ranges. The Condor is highly accurate, efficient, extremely quiet (when used with a shroud), and it allows death to be instantaneous to prevent cruelty. It is such an effective setup, that you can quickly get rid of starlings without disturbing other birds from feeding and socializing. You can safely take out starlings without other birds knowing whats going on.
The starling in this video is the last one in a group of 5 that I took out while it was on one of my feeders, and it was killed instantly. As a result, I have already noticed an increase of visits by native birds, which will be maintained until (if / when) the next group of starlings show up in the neighborhood.
Starling numbers multiply much faster than most other birds, which is one of the reasons why there are so many of them across the U.S. The key to ridding your neighborhood of starlings is to kill as many as you can, and as quickly and efficiently as you can without disturbing native birds or your neighbors. Doing so will help mitigate having to kill more offspring later on. If you have a bunch of them, just keep killing them very efficiently without scaring them off, and before you know it, you will notice a major improvement to the natural bird habitat in your neighborhood.
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February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Wow! You’ve been …
Wow! You’ve been busy! I can’t imaging having that many Starlings coming around my feeders, even in 2 or 3 month period. If that many came around, I would certainly make myself ready for them. I do watch my feeders for the native birds pretty regularly. However, I have only seen one lone straggling starling coming around about once a month or so, and he doesn’t stick around more than about 30 seconds. The starling activity has been very quiet in my area for a long time.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
I have a new body …
I have a new body count and it’s 547 starlings and 321 house sparrows dead since the purchase of my “air force condor .22″ air rifle and I also use a repeating trap for big flocks. I actually keep a bunch of bait birds fed and healthy in a cage that I bought so they go in the trap quite easily. I don’t mind the people keeping starling pets in their house but in the wild they are just too damaging to other cavity nesters. You can’t convince some people of the danger to our songbirds though.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
nice shot!
nice shot!
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
the best way to get …
the best way to get rid of them is to kill them pure and simple. good shot!
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
I go over to my …
I go over to my buddy’s farm and we slay em’. There was one day we killed over 100 before we lost count. I use a single shot 12 gauge with a modified choke. They had some problems with TGE in a few hogs caused by these birds. So we kill them all.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
09/13/09 Update: …
09/13/09 Update: Yesterday, I noticed that one more Starling had joined the other two, but today I took out another Starling, so I am back down to 2 in my area, at least until I have the opportunity to pick them off, or more Starlings come along to join my Starling Death Row.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Thanks PE and some …
Thanks PE and some folks will never understand until it’s too late then they will say huh maybe we should have done something about that. The favorite arguement is that they are doing what comes natural which is great since that is what cold blooded killers do too but we can’t have them running around the general population.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Sorry to hear about …
Sorry to hear about your purple martins. It can take time to get the starling activity and population down, as it appears more “replacements” are coming in, but just keep at it. Eventually, you will notice their numbers dropping or becoming non-existant, and some of the native birds gradually returning later.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
I always get a kick …
I always get a kick out of the people that defend the HOSP and starling without ever seeing what they do to songbirds. They wiped my purple martins out and forced my other songbirds to relocate. I’ve been bird watching for 25 years and seen way too much out of the starling so I now have an air rifle and I am slowly taking my 2 acres back from them also I purchased the “ultimate repeating sparrow/starling trap” and can catch 30 a day just google the trap it works great. I then destroy the birds.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
That is the last …
That is the last meal that bird will ever get, lol.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Excellent job, dude …
Excellent job, dude! I can’t stand Starlings & House Sparrows. One pet peeve I have is when people put out feeders/nestboxes for decor or for any bird to enjoy. They don’t even realize what they’re really doing. I’m hoping to eliminate some birds myself. If no one’s going to do something about their numbers, then I guess it’s up to us!
Anyways, keep up the good work shooting them.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
I am not sure of …
I am not sure of your specific setup, but on mine in particular, my laser would get off of zero more frequently when I had it mounted on the bottom rail, so I mounted it on the top rail in front of the scope. Zero is much more easily maintained, and when I adjust it, it is very minor with thumb screws. If I get a little suspicious about it staying on zero, I use a Laserlyte bore sighter, and that quickly resolves any questions about its accuracy. I highly recommend them, even for a scope.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Very nice, i had a …
Very nice, i had a laser attacked to my scope but it wasn’t staying sighted in so i took it off