More Starling action

We've had a few more whoosh netting sessions in Jane's front garden since my last post about the subject. See blog post here.

Its interesting to see how they are progressing with their post juvenile moult and the latest cohort have virtually completed their primary moult but still retain a lot of their juvenile plumage - especially around the head.

We recently caught only our second adult bird. An adult male in stunning plumage. Starlings are unusual in the fact that the adult feathers are generally more pointed than the juvenile ones. In most other passerines it's the opposite way around. The throat and upper tail covert feathers are a good ageing feature as can be seen in the photos below:

Above: Adult male Starling showing pointed upper tail covert feathers.
Below: Juvenile Starling showing rounded upper tail coverts.

Catching an adult Starling gave us the opportunity to check another ageing characteristic- tail shape and the presence of a diffuse black sub-terminal band in the adult bird. See below left with juvenile on the right. Adults have broader tail feathers in common with other passerines. Think steak knife and butter knife!

Now most of the juvenile birds are attaining most of their adult body feathers its easier to sex them on the shape of the white markings on the breast feathers. The presence of an interoccular eyering isn't always conclusive and in the odd case where its poorly defined the shape of these spots can be the deciding factor. Males have more pointed 'arrowhead' shaped markings whilst females have borader and rounder markings. See below with female on the left and male on the right. These are very obvious individuals.

It's not all about the Starlings. We were more than happy to let Helen ring this adult Carrion Crow that couldn't resist the amount of food left out to attract the Starlings. According to the BTO online records only 2 adult Carrion Crows were ringed in Cheshire last year!

Not everyones favourite bird but beautiful glossy plumage when seen close up.

Once again thanks to Jane for the  use of her garden, suppling tea and cakes and carrying out repairs to whoosh nets (and mist nets!). Also to John & Helen for their assistance in ringing and scribing.