It is difficult to be certain from that picture but if I had to make an educated guess I would say that from the basic shape and the speckled coloration that certainly appears to be a European Starling.

From a distance European Starlings can be difficult to identify because their coloration seems to change by the angle of the light.

In this photo you can easily see that the Starling has a speckled appearance, however:

As you can see from the photos of the starling & Red-bellied Woodpecker, when seen from a different angle they can appear purple or almost black.

By nature they can be thought of as the hoodlum street gang punks of the bird world. When alone they generally keep their distance from the other birds and may even appear timid, but don't let that fool you. Generally they travel in a small flock of 15 to 20 or more birds and when they come into the yard or your feeder location they take over, physically forcing the other birds aside, all except the woodpeckers that is. Woodpeckers are generally very congenial and play nice with the other birds, but when Starlings come on the scene the woodpeckers in my yard seem stand their ground, often running off three or four starlings at once. But then I guess when you have a beak that can punch a hole in an oak tree you don't have to take anything from other birds...LOL

Nice pics! Thanks! Not sure if this has always been a problem and I am only now noticing but, on several occasions lately, I have had a large group of VERY NOISY birds (Starlings I am assuming) visit my yard! I mean LOUD!! One sunday I was keeping my cousin's two year old daughter, and the birds showed up during nap time and were so loud, they woke the child up!! it sounds like something from "The Birds" movie when they show up, lol. ALso have seen them in my office complex. My coworker yelled across the office "hey, come look at this, don't you like nature and stuff?" lol, so I went to look and there were a whole bunch of these birds on the ground outside of his office window, raising hell!!

ams2009,

Yes it is a starling in winter plumage. That is when the speckles are most noticeable.

lazypup,

Nice pictures of the Red Bellied Woodpecker thrashing out at the starling. If only we could train them to take in one step further. Now that would be cool for our Bluebirds,Tree Swallows,etc..I have a Pileated Woodpecker pair at my suet feeders every year here. Well I once saw the male Pileated hit a starling so hard off that feeder that for about 10 seconds I thought the starling was dead. It knocked him a little senseless for a bit and he just sat there on his side on the ground. You are right about the woodpeckers holding their ground. I just wish that the Red Headed Woodpeckers were more aggressive against starlings but they would rather just move on and try and get away from their pressure than fight them. Sad..and that is why the Redheads are very rare breeders now in the New England states where they were once common. The southern states and the northern tier states like Wisconsin and Minnesota seem to be the last strongholds of the Red Headed Woodpeckers...Mike

I have a pair of Lewis's Woodpeckers that nest somewhere close by in the spring. they showed up a few days ago to the feeders and the male hates starlings and has been chasing them off daily, the female is quiter and tends to avoid them. The male flew in about sunup yesterday and ate some suet and cracked corn and then perched in a dead tree close by while the female came to eat. the starlings showed up and he swoped in and chased them away. He has been drumming on a light pole last couple days and a hope they are getting ready to nest again this year. But it is afully early here yet with still several foot of snow left on the ground,. And no insects or bags till it warms up a lot more.

Ams2009, your noisy birds are most likely Grackles.
Lazypup, I like your pictures, especially the first one - I will borrow it for wallpaper :) I noticed starlings and woodpeckers have the same shape, just different color.

The bird in her photo is definitely a European Starling, and Starlings commonly travel in large, noisy flocks, however it is very easy to confuse European Starlings with Grackles because both species exhibit the same noisy flocking habits and aggressive natures.

To make identification even more difficult European Starlings & Grackles often flock together and in some instances they even nest in large group settings.

Both European Starlings and Common Grackles are problematic to people because they will often exploit small openings the siding, soffits and fascia of our structures to nest in attics or wall cavities.

When I was kid I lived on a dairy farm and our old farmhouse had redwood plank siding. One season so many grackles and starlings got into the siding that our entire house was infested with bird lice. To clear the mess we had to strip the siding off the house, clean all the straw, twigs and other nesting materials out of the wall cavities and the entire house had to be fumigated to kill the lice.

I have often seen flocks of Starlings and Grackles land on a freshly planted field and the flock would cover an entire acre or more.

STARLINKA- I am flattered that you would like my photo for wallpaper. Feel free to use any photo I post for that purpose. The only thing I ask is that people do not use my photos for commercial purposes. I post them free and I would expect others to share them for the same price,

In fact, if you or any of the others would like a specific species for wallpaper please feel free to send me an email and i will see if I have something you might like.

Thank you,

Great photos!