First time to see a Starling

[AnnieM]

Yesterday morning was sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee watching the collection of birds squabbling over the feeders in the cold. Something caught my attention out on our gourd rack. I could see a head poking in and out of the gourd and it looked dark blue! It appeared to be removing some of the new nesting material I'd put in the gourds and tossing it out on the porch. I grabbed my binocs while thinking, "sure hope it's not a martin...too cold!" and then I saw a yellow beak poke out of the opening. The bird threw out a few more pieces of nesting material and then EASILY exited the SREH entrance on the Troyer gourd, sat on the porch long enuf for me to ID the white speckles on its body, and then flew off. I sat there in shock. I read all the time about starlings, but in the 10 years we've lived out here, have never seen one before. And here this one was inside the gourd!! But what shocked me even more was that the starling didn't seem to struggle the least bit exiting the gourd. Have not seen it since, but am wondering what was the behavior of removing the nesting material? Why is there a starling here when there are no martins yet? And why was he so easily able to negotiate the SREH?

[~Ray~Gingerich]

The starlings up here are scruffy and under weight, I believe the cold winter has taken it's toll.
Your starling might have ideas of nesting and wants to fill the cavity with it's own trashy looking nest. You could raise your porch to the bottom of your SREH opening with a slick material

[Louise Chambers]

Annie, that's always a moment, seeing a starling zipping in & out of a starling-resistant entrance. More info from you would help so we can share ideas for fixes.

Was it in a house or gourd? What type of SREH? Often the problem can be fixed by raising the porch (many threads on this here). Another fix is the Lewis modification, which is adding a wing entrapment guard on the outside of the SREH, sometimes raising the porch along with this one.

You can also put a cavity trap in the house or gourd.

[eyeamtheman]

We've all read about a starling here and there getting in a SREH. Something a little different about em, maybe? Or maybe you can adjust that entrance slightly, as what was already mentioned. Instant success tho is a bullet, and that's all I use. I'm lucky enough to still use round holes and not have a lot of starlings around. And a pretty accurate .22 rifle.

[AnnieM]

More info... We have only 24 cavities the majority of which are Troyer Vertical gourds with Conley 2 entrances. Six are Excluder gourds with crescent entrances. I have them all ready to go but have not raised them all the way up as our martins are not due until March 12-14. I left open one gourd on each pole in case of an early, after dark arrival. A HOSP pair immediately found one of the open gourds and have been hanging around going in and out, so I was even more surprised that the HOSPs allowed a starling to go into "their" gourd. The HOSP's days are numbered...

Two pics are attached, one is what I "think" y'all are referring to re raised porches. I read an article by Mike Sculley (I think it was) in San Antonio who was doing extensive testing of the raised porches with inconclusive results. Another post re modifying the 'slick' raised entrance to help keep the martins stable, thus defeating the Starling-proof properties. So then I got confused. I'm willing to give anything a try if y'all have suggestions.

The pic with the red arrow points to the Troyer SREH breached by the Starling. Not having seen one before I'm not sure of the 'normal' size. We have many White-wing doves and Cardinals, and I'm guessing by images on the Internet that starlings are not as large as the doves, but larger than Cardinals. It looked bigger than the PMs and I still can't believe how quick it came out of that entrance! The good news is I haven't seen "it" since but will keep watching. I have not read about the Lewis modification, so will follow up on that.

10-4 on the 22. Santa brought a nice one for Christmas (Benjamin Marauder .22 with scope). Not sure if Santa brought for me or himself?? LOL. Only had a chance to practice three times due to *WEATHER* which we are standing by for one more wintry blast scheduled to arrive in about 2 hours. UGH.

[Courtney-NC]

I have seen several folks complain of starlings breaching the entrance your gourds have, which is Conley II.
Take a look at this thread, which describes and shows the Lewis Modification. It may solve your problem.
http://www.purplemartin.org/forum/viewt ... dification

[Henry Limpet]

I saw a European Starling (ES) yesterday afternoon. It was in the clutches of a Coopers Hawk. I think they were heading to lunch. The Coopers Hawk was driving.

[Mark Peters]

The starlings are plentiful here in Houston. Wish they would just go away.