One of the most common garden birds that delight us year in and year out is the starling, slightly smaller than a blackbird but with glossy feathers in purples and greens, or brown with bright white spots in winter.
These birds are both noisy and sociable, so it’s no wonder that people perhaps take them a little for granted, assuming that they’ll always be around.
However, this may not be the case, as the latest RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch survey has sadly found that fewer starlings are now hopping about in UK gardens, with the lowest number recorded since records began back in 1979.
If you’re keen to support starling populations, you can do a huge amount of good by hanging a bird feeder up somewhere in your garden – which they’ll thank you particularly for during the winter months.
When out foraging for themselves, they’ll fill their beaks with invertebrates like spiders, earthworms, moths and leatherjackets, as well as fruit, but you can help supplement their diet with softer grains and seeds.
This is important to remember as starlings have relatively soft bills, so a mix of soft grains, mealworms, sultanas, raisins and sunflower hearts will serve them well. You can also hang up both suet and fat balls, as well as putting scraps from the kitchen on your bird tables, as starlings are particularly voracious feeders and will make light work of anything you lay out.
Also check out our Superior Wild Bird Food husk-free mix with fruit that provides a high nutrient level and energy intake for birds of all kinds – including starlings! Blackbirds and song thrushes are also big fans of this particular mix, so you’ll see all sorts of wonderful birds flocking to your gardens when you sprinkle this around and about.
Bird-saving action
It’s not just food you can focus on if you want to help birds thrive now and well into the future.
Emma Marsh, executive director with the RSPB, told Radio 4’s Today programme that there are lots of small actions people can take to benefit starlings and other wildlife, adding that it’s a “real shame” that starling numbers are dwindling because they’re one of the nation’s “most charismatic birds”.
She suggested avoiding using pesticides in the garden, as these can affect the number of insects that starlings would otherwise have as a food source. Other steps to consider include maintaining a mix of long and short grass, keeping lawns natural with clovers and dandelions, and installing nest boxes onsite.
This year, nearly 600,000 people around the UK took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch, with more than nine million birds counted over the course of an hour in gardens and local parks!
Before the year 2,000, the starling was regularly among the most numerous species recorded but it has now dropped from third to fourth place, behind the house sparrow, the blue tit and the wood pigeon, with the blackbird in fifth.
