Male starlings often start checking out potential nest sites prior to their actual breeding season. So starlings may be looking at a purple martin house, a woodpecker cavity or hole in a building during the fall and early winter.
If a male starling likes what he finds, he may claim the cavity then and even defend it against other male starlings. Starlings will fight each other viciously and many starlings die in fights during the breeding season.
During the fall and early winter, starlings are in their winter plumage and their beaks are dark. Starlings are heavily speckled with “white spots” on their dark feathers.
During the breeding season the starlings transform into the “mating” plumage and their beaks turn yellow. The male and female starlings have iridescent purples and greens in their glossy black feathers though the males may appear to be just a little more colorful. The males have a light blue or blue/gray color at the base of their beaks. Female starling beaks are usually pinkish at the base. The males have longer “hackle” feathers in the throat area and when the males display, these feathers tend to stick out almost in a “porcupine” look.
Also the male starling selects the territory and displays for a mate. He will perch near the cavity, flap his wings, and vocalize for a potential mate. The female starling checks out the male and his territory and makes the decision to accept or reject him.
As starlings start their transformation to breeding “attire”, you may see a starling with a dark beak and some yellowing or even one that is part dark and part yellow. A male starling may show just “a tad” of blue/gray at the base of his beak.
Bob, my next neighbor, and I don’t have much of a starling problem with our two personal purple martin colonies in northwest Louisiana. Our isolated rural location with few short grassy areas and human dwellings is not that attractive to starlings; starlings tend to prefer urban/suburban/rural areas with many buildings for possible nest sites and open closely mowed lawns or similar grassy environments for feeding. Starlings usually need open short grass environments during the breeding season to find small invertebrates to feed nestlings; starling young need large quantities of protein during their growth period and can’t survive without this diet. Starlings are “grazers” particularly during the breeding season and walk through short grassy areas and probe for prey with their long beaks. Our area is open but much of this has hayfields which are unsuitable for starlings to forage for insects; the grass is too tall and thick. The main short grass areas are in our yards and there is not a lot of feeding space for many starling pairs to successfully nest so only a few could nest anyway. Other short grass environments are located farther away but parent starlings are not going to fly long distances back and forth to find food for their young.
However, there are a few starlings around and they may start “visiting” our martin colonies beginning in early November. I will see a lone starling or even several fly down and start checking out the housing. This is the perfect time to start a trapping program.
My early starling trapping program usually begins in November and continues through January and sometimes into early February. The most starlings I have caught during these months were 13 before the 2009 martin season and I caught six prior to the 2010 martin season. I caught seven before the 2011 season. Since early November of this year I have only caught three starlings prior to the 2012 martin season. There are definitely fewer starlings around here this year and perhaps the devastating drought in 2011 adversely impacted the starling population.
This early trapping eliminates most of the starling problems when the martins return though I may shoot several starlings during the active martin season. We just don’t have many starlings and it has been like this since I moved out here and started my martin colony in 2005. No starlings have ever established territory in our housing or harmed any martins or their eggs or nestlings.
In our colonies, the few starlings that show up nearly always go to martin houses rather than gourds. Bob has many more houses than I do since I use more gourds. So I use houses to place insert traps inside the compartments. I usually lower all of Bob’s houses except perhaps two. In these “trap” houses, I close off all compartments that don’t have traps inside.
I use the PMCA metal T-14 trap which also works well in Lone Star Goliad and Alamo houses. I also use the PMCA Universal sparrow trap in the Trio houses for starlings and a PMCA nest box trap. The Universal trap is rather small, but a starling will still enter the compartment and get caught. The nest box trap works great for starlings but I can’t keep bluebirds out of it; they are constantly getting caught and I have to release them all the time from the box. But I still occasionally try to use the nest box trap by hanging the box on multi-compartment houses and this sometimes works. The bluebirds tend to stay away from the traps in the multi-compartments houses.
My favorite starling trap is the PMCA metal T-14 trap and I have several. It works well in T-14s and in Lone Star houses. If you are looking for good quality starling trap for T-14s or Lone Star houses, I would recommend this product. Here is a link to the PMCA’s online store where you can read more about the trap and order it:
http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... c8f64ec099
In addition to the metal T-14 trap, I have some PMCA Universal sparrow traps for use in Bob’s Trio Castles and my Trio M-12s. The Universal trap will fit in the Trios though this is a small trap and probably is better at catching house sparrows but I have caught starlings. Here is a link to the PMCA’s online store where you can read more about the trap and order it:
http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... c8f64ec099
And I use the PMCA nest box trap. Here is that link:
http://purplemartin.org/shop/product_in ... dbcd990246
I would encourage folks to start early starling and house sparrow trapping programs PRIOR to the martins’ return. You may be able to eliminate a significant number of these pests early on and make it easier on the martins and yourself.
Here are some photos of starlings caught in the PMCA metal T-14 trap and Universal trap:
These photos show a starling caught in a PMCA metal T-14 trap. I had placed the trap in compartment of a Lone Star Goliad. After this “photo shoot”, the starling had an appointment with the Grim Reaper! The starling is in its winter plumage and the beak is already showing a little yellowing.
This photo shows a starling caught in a PMCA Universal trap. I had placed the trap in the compartment of a Trio Castle. After this “photo shoot”, the starling had an appointment with the Grim Reaper! The starling is in its winter plumage.
Steve
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