This is a European Starling,Sternavulgaris. An occasional bath helps it maintain its glossy splendor. I came upon a starling splashing at the edge of a pond in Brooklyn, in New York City. After getting wet, he flew into a tree and shook and preened methodically for a few minutes, pictured below. Click on the photos […]
Tag: starling
Migration across to Europe
It’s quite a long photo post this week and please scroll down and enjoy the views we’ve been having. I’ve been quite busy and wanted to write up more but I was out in the field most days and had lots of emails and other office work to do. Black-eared Wheatears continued to show up […]
Wintering Birds of Lake Kawahara
Lake Kawahara is a small lake by the sea in Nagasaki prefecture, Japan. It is not far from Kabashima, one of the best places for spring and autumn migrants. Lake Kawahara is particularly attractive to thrushes and starlings, but smaller passerines also winter here as there is plenty of shelter for them in the forests […]
Bird Tour Report
From Sunday midday until Wednesday afternoon I guided a visiting birder from Canada around places in Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Saga prefectures. Firstly we went to Yatsushiro and Hikawa Estuary, where we saw gulls and shorebirds, however the Black-faced Spoonbills that I had expected there were not to be found. The next morning we watched Streaked […]
Aerial Kung Fu
A starling in crane stance, kung fu master clutching invisible enemies, wind shredded through whistling talons – Starling – Sturnus vulgaris
Autumn Migration
Raptor and passerine migration is now well and truly underway in my region of Japan. The Chinese Goshawks have finished and now it is the turn of the Oriental Honey Buzzards, Grey-faced Buzzards, Eurasian Sparrowhawks and smaller numbers of Northern Hobby and Japanese Sparrowhawk. The Eurasian Kestrels have just arrived at Isahaya, along with the […]
Liberated from Gravity
Starlings bound together in mid-flight, liberated from gravity with no time to stop and wonder. • Starling | Sturnus vulgaris
Outlaw Siren
Outlaw siren of primitive magic, a spinning jenny of melodrama mocks the sky and dismantles my yard. • Starling | Sturnus vulgaris