European Starling, Rusty Blackbird and Common Grackle

The European Starling is a very common bird. They are around all year long and take on several different looks. They appear small and they appear large. They look black, iridescent, and multi-colored speckled, like this one. I got this shot from my patio door. Every now and then a nice bird decides to land in and around my yard.

This is a male Rusty Blackbird. Although this bird is considered fairly common in Newfoundland, there seem to be rare sightings. It is black overall with a bluish tint to its wings and tail. It has black legs and a yellow eye. In order to get this shot on Cape Race road, I had to chase it from both sides of the road and in through the thicket. When it did land, it picked the worst possible place as far as lighting goes and then, it sat there and sang for a while.

This Common Grackle was found near a feeder in a yard in a small community on the Southern Shore. According to the field guides, this bird is more rare than the Rusty Blackbird. There are many similarities between this bird and the Rusty Blackbird like the long black bill, yellow eyes and black feet. It may be best to identify this bird by its faint iridescent purplish color and markings.

It is very easy to confuse the birds from a distance and a challenge to accurately identify them even when close. It is always a good idea to take a picture and use the field guide to make an identification. If that fails there is always the "wingingit" source offered by Bruce McTavish of The Telegram.

Bird Walk Correction

The bird walk will be at the Botanical Gardens this Sunday morning, May 2, 2010, at 8:00 a.m. This walk will take approximately 2 hours.

European Starling

 Since last winter I decided to try to document some of the many transitions that the European Starling undergo on their way to maturity. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall, these birds are in my yard. Sometimes there are so many that I can't count them all. This group of adult European Starlings looks very small because they have tightened up their bodies for protection from the wind and snow.

 Alas, Winter passes and Spring has brought many, many new European Starlings to add to the already too-many numbers. The juvenile European Starling is a brown, sooty color with very little color on the body and only a tinge of gold on the wings. It somewhat resembles the female Brown-headed Cowbird at this stage.

 As Spring passes into Summer, the sooty little bird begins to develop some breast markings that clearly identify it as a European Starling. An aside:  I wonder why there are very few of these birds in Central Newfoundland when there are so many on the Avalon Peninsula.

 Summer draws to an end and by now the juvenile European Starling has developed a strong iridescent color all over its body.

 In this shot, the head looks black and the bird has a mussy hair-do. Despite the nuisance nature of these birds, they are really something special to look at.

 This is a mature European Starling as the yellow on the bill indicates. By this stage all of the scraggly look of the immature birds has disappeared and the bird is sleek and colorful. Often these birds are seen in large flocks that sit on wires or perform an areal act waving through the sky. It is worthwhile isolating one or two birds and really looking at the amazing mix of colors all over their body.

 This immature European Starling is moving very close to the look of the mature bird above, but the bill is still black.

 In this image, the birds looks different from any other picture. The mix of brown on the wings catches the sun and makes them look like some exotic tropical bird.

It was this juvenile European Starling that landed on my deck this morning that prompted me to organize my Starling pictures and post this blog. The mix of green and gold on this bird has not yet developed the iridescent color. This is a beautiful example of a fall-coloured bird.