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strange baby starling in the starling-house

12 years ago

I have an old starling-house in my garden near Moscow, Russia

The starlings use it every year.

Last week I noticed that this year they are feeding just one baby and it looks strange to me, see the photos on my website here:

www.bobynino.land.ru/bird.html

Is this a normal baby starling? Ore they are feeding somebody else? I have a feeling thatthe baby there is already too big to get out through the hole. Another concern in that today is September and in my region we can expecty frost every night at this time of the year

Image link:

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Comments (4)

bob414
12 years ago
Check out this WOT rating before using the link above.
andrei186
Original Author
12 years ago
hi, bob414, what does WOT rating has to do with my question about the bird?
Besides this rating is based just on the following four parameters: Trustworthiness, Vendor reliability,
Privacy and Child Safety while the most important factor is safety in terms of viruses, obout which this WOT rating does not seem to care. I use this server to store my pictures because it is free.
Besides, a photo of the bird can be seen on the local link above (Image link: strange baby starling in the starling-house (45 k))
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Thank you. :-)I was hoping you would see the post soon. We did manage to get them all back in the nest. I did not observe any mites while I had the chicks waiting for DH to take apart the house. I was checking for ant bites too. One lil fella probably wll die soon as his side seemed bloated...maybe from injuring something as he fell. The birdhouse is for bluebirds and does have a slope that the chicks may have wiggled up on and then out the hole. Mom and Dad starling were there within 5 minutes feeding them again. At least one of them was. The other parent seems to have a heck of a time getting in that hole(it was designed to keep them out)and just sort of stands around looking helpless. I just hate seeing fallen chicks and since I read on a bird rescue site that the parents will usually accept the baby even if you have touched them, I now return them to their nests. So far I have had good luck observing parents returning to nests that I have returned their babies to. If it looks like I may need to handfeed any at some point I will let you know so you can help me. Don't know if I would be able to as I do work full time though. I didn't realize dogfood would be eaten by the baby starlings. I had to give my pet bird handfeeding "formula" from a syringe. Do the starling babies just eat solid foods like that right away? ~Heidi
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My sister just called me with a similar problem with the phoebe nest on her deck. The first thing that came to my mind was the cowbird. I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this notorious brood parasite. Even though the cowbirds most common host is the yellow warbler, the brown-headed cowbird often targets Eastern phoebes for its host. I've actually seen female cowbirds egg-dump phoebe nests. It's an extremely fast process. Now before people have evil thoughts towards the brown-headed cowbird, I have to say this: it's not the cowbirds fault... Cowbirds evolved following roaming buffalo herds around, and therefore developed a breeding strategy (brood parasitism) that allowed them to do so. The cowbird used to be an uncommon species here in the northeast, but during the 17 and 1800s almost all forests were cut down for farmland. Since cowbirds are an open spaces/prairie species, this is the perfect habitat for them. They also like edge habitat (powerlines, forest edges etc.) So, I told my sister to keep watching the nest for a cowbird chick. The young, a week or two along, should be larger, louder and healthier by far than the others. It's more agressive behavior as a nestling makes it sure that it gets fed at the expense (often fatal) of the others. So if the young in a nest all look and sound the same, chances are it "cowbird-free."
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bob414
12 years ago
There are two links in your picture. The one that shows your bird is OK and I should have said that. The other is to the site where your pictures are stored and WOT gives it a red rating and people should be aware of that before visiting it. Here is your picture so no one has to worry about visiting the site.

{{!gwi}}
starlinka
12 years ago
It is defiantly not a starling. I have two different ideas of what kind of bird it is.
1- it could be a baby cuckoo bird (ÃÂºÃÂÃÂºÃÂÃÂÃÂºÃÂ°) who got to big to fit trough the
hole. On the other hand if the hole is to small for fledgling, it should also be to small for a female cuckoo bird to drop an egg in there.
2 - by the looks of it's head,it could be some kind of swift (ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂ¸ÃÂ¶). I don't think a starling would raise/feed a swift, it's probably just roosting there.

I would open the birdhouse anyway to see if the bird is OK and can fly out.

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