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Tag Archives: starling

House sparrows & Starlings at home

19 Tuesday Apr 2016

Posted by theresagreen in bird behaviour, birds of Wales, garden wildlife, Nature, Nature of Wales, nature photography, Rhos-on-Sea

≈ 17 Comments

Tags

birds of conservation concern, garden birds, house sparrow, house sparrows taking pampas grass, passer domesticus, starling

I was pleased to see House sparrows once again topped this year’s list of the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch in England, Wales and Scotland, but we shouldn’t get complacent, they’re still on the ‘Red List’ of birds requiring the highest conservation priority, along with other species needing urgent action.

Over the past couple of weeks I have spent some afternoons dog-sitting for my daughter, which has given me the opportunity to catch up with the little flock that regard her garden, together with those of the immediate neighbours’ as their territory.

160222-Nat's garden-House sparrow after bathing

House sparrows love to bathe and sit on the fence to dry out

I don’t blame them for settling here, they have everything they need to live as easy and productive life as it is possible for birds to enjoy. Throughout the year they come and go throughout the day, enjoying the bounty of well-stocked bird feeders, a pond in which to bathe and hedges to provide cover and perching places. Every evening the whole community returns to roost safely within the prickly pyracantha hedge. Now they are well into the throws of nesting. Earlier on they began refurbishing last year’s nests or rebuilding any lost through winter pruning. There are perhaps 4-5 nests, sited close together, although the level of noise that emanates from within sounds like there should be more. A couple more pairs prefer the loftier location of the eaves above the third floor at the front of the house.

160222-Nat's garden-House sparrow after bathing 1

In the breeding season the dominant birds leave the safety of the hedges and perch prominently on the highest points of shrubs to proclaim their territory, although the individual territory of the male House Sparrow really only consists of the nesting hole and a very small area around it, which is defended vigorously.

160403-Nat's garden-House sparrow male

Dominant males have larger, darker feather ‘bib’ patches

Females judge males on the vigor of his behaviour and also by his plumage. The black bib and how it is displayed is hugely important for him and size matters. Apparently males with small bibs can be induced to behave more boldly if they have bigger and blacker bibs painted on them!

160403-Nat's garden-House sparrow male 1

160403-Nat's garden-House sparrow on elder

A younger male with only a semblance of a bib

160222-Nat's garden-House sparrow female perched

Dominant females join their partners, but tend to stay slightly lower down and prefer a little more cover

160222-Nat's garden-House sparrows eating greens

Female House sparrows eating fresh greenery

Every year, when the nests are built or refurbished, the sparrows systematically strip the soft fluffy seed heads of the pampas grass that grows in a neighbouring garden. I spent ages one afternoon watching them as they returned repeatedly to strip the stems and carry off the fronds. I assume they use the fluffy parts to line their nests, but wonder if there are seeds to eat too? I find this behaviour fascinating and have witnessed it in South Wales where pampas was growing and also in our garden in Spain. In each location they begin working on the plant on the same day, arriving sometimes in numbers, males and females and set to, detaching the fronds and carrying them off a beakful at time. The harvest continues over a few days until the stems are left bare.

160403-Nat's garden-House sparrows collecting pampas grass

160403-Nat's garden 2-House sparrows collecting pampas grass

160403-Nat's garden3-House sparrow female with beak full of pampas

A Starling pair are nesting in one of the chimney pots and they too enjoy the feeding and bathing facilities, also pausing to dry out on perched on the fence or at the top of the hedge. Still one of our commonest garden birds, its decline elsewhere makes it too a Red List species.

The bird in the photographs below is the male of the pair, identified by the blue colouration at the base of his bill; the female has a similar patch that is coloured pink.

160403-Nat's garden-Starling male in privet hedge

160403-Nat's garden-Starling male in privet hedge 1

160222-Nat's garden-Starling taking off

The male sings beautifully, sometimes from up on the roof but also from the fence and the top of the hedge. His mate doesn’t get out much at the moment, so must be sitting on eggs.

The starling was singing, hence the fluffed out throat feathers

The starling was singing, hence the fluffed out throat feathers

STARLING (f)-Sturnus Vulgaris

Starling female has a pink patch at the base of her bill

PS: The pampas grass is now just a collection of bare dry stems!

 

 

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Fair weather gardening

02 Monday Apr 2012

Posted by theresagreen in garden wildlife, Insects, Nature, nature photography

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

Bee-fly, Drone fly, herring gull, house sparrow, starling, wood pigeon

There are times when life takes precedence over blogging and I’m lagging behind a little with my postings as a result, only by a week or so, but at this time of year when nature is pressing on apace, an awful lot can happen in a very short time, so I’m trying to catch up.

The hot weekend of 25-26th March brought the incentive I needed to finally get out and cut the grass for the first time this year before its height exceeded the capabilities of my daughter’s little Flymo. My antics attracted the curiosity of  a few of the neighbours, who peered down from their penthouses to see what the racket was about.

An imperious stare from the beady yellow eye of one of 'our' herring gull pair

A wood Pigeon chose an aerial view of proceedings and seemed quite surprised by them

The starling was more preoccupied with posing

The starling, recognisable as a male by the blue base to his bill, looked so gorgeous I am putting in another shot of him.

He was whistling and singing, hence the fluffed out throat feathers

“I’m only a poor little sparrow, no colourful feathers have I, I can’t even sing when I’m nesting in spring……”

The garden hedges were bursting with House Sparrows, and I can see that at least two pairs are beginning to nest within the spiny pyracantha; more are occupying a space they have found high up in the eaves of the house at the front. Their constant cheerful cheepings and chatterings ensure I am aware of their companionship. They may not be colourful, nor can they sing, but I love them.

The male House Sparrows are all bright eyed and in their mating best plumage now

They may be brown, but how can you not appreciate the subtlety and detailed patterning of a female Sparrow's wing?

A weed is just a flower out of place

I’ve never been a fan of closely mown and weed-free lawns, partly because I never had the time or the inclination to spend hours on nurturing such a sward, but mainly because I could never bring myself to mow down daisies and would always leave little archipelagos of them strung throughout mine. I have a slightly different attitude to dandelions; whilst I do appreciate their golden beauty, they go to seed so rapidly and spread like wildfire so although I will leave a few, the majority do have to go. They are a very important source of nectar for early pollen and nectar foraging insects though, so I’m not too hasty to give them the chop.

Dainty blue speedwell is another wild flower I hate to cut down. They don't take up much space and are so pretty.

Hoverfly on lesser celandine

There are a couple of patches of lesser celandine in the lawn in this little garden that I am loathe to cut , even though I know they are just going to continue to grow and spread and probably get out of hand, but whilst I’m care-taking here they’ll stay. I was gratified to see a small hoverfly on a flower and delighted by a visit from one of my all-time favourite insects, a crazily-constructed bee-fly.

A favourite insect of mine, the bee-fly has a permanently projected long proboscis and ridiculously long legs to balance it

Bee-fly – Bombylius major

A very distinctive fly, a bee-mimic, these fascinating insects are most frequently seen in the early spring, from April to June when they may attract attention as they hover for several seconds at a time in the same spot, either over bare ground or over a  flower then dart off and return to the spot facing in a different direction.  Their hovering may be accompanied by a high-pitched buzz.

The body is rounded and furry,  the legs appear disproportionately long and spindly, but are probably required to balance the long rigid proboscis which is permanently fixed on the front of the head. Their boldly patterned wings have a distinct dividing border through the horizontal middle between the dark and clear portions. Their antennae are typically very short and pointed. The bee-fly’s behaviour belies its cute appearance though. The adult female lays her eggs close to the underground nest of a solitary bee 0r wasps, then flicks them towards the entrance. After hatching, the bee-fly larvae find their way into the nests to feed on the nest owner’s larvae.

A bee-fly resting on the ground showing better the patterned wings

There were lots of drone  flies about and a lesser number of smaller species hoverflies. Surprisingly my first butterfly sighting of this year was a little Holly Blue, followed a while later by the species I had expected to see first, a Speckled Wood. Neither obliged by resting for long enough for me to photograph and it feels like cheating to use ‘one I made earlier’, so I’ll have to wait.

Drone-fly-eristalis pertinax

An early marmalade fly

Inside the house, a large queen wasp had become trapped against the kitchen window: I had watched it earlier  flying back and forth along the bottom of the hedge. After taking the photograph I let it out. Must clean that window.

Wasp trapped on the inside of the kitchen window

On the living room window a pair of flies were mating - underside view

The upperside view of the flies on the outside of the window. Difference in size between the sexes is appreciable, the male considerably smaller.

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New year nature part 1

15 Sunday Jan 2012

Posted by theresagreen in Nature, nature photography, Rhos-on-Sea

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

birds`with brown plumage, blackbird, feeding birds, garden birds, house sparrow, rhos on sea, starling

I’d like to begin by wishing a belated but very sincere happy new year to everyone taking the  time and trouble to read this blog. It seems like an age since I posted my last offering, but other commitments, including our daughter’s wedding on Boxing Day and my venturing out of more-or-less retirement back into the world of work for the forthcoming next three months, have taken up much of my time and most of my energy.  As a consequence, for the last few months most of my nature watching has been glimpsed through glass, either from the house or the car, but I’m still aware of what’s happening around me, although with less time to record it.

(To avoid confusion I should probably mention at this point that I am back in Rhos-on-Sea, North Wales)

I have been restricted in my freedom to roam thus far, but I thought that I  would make that into an opportunity to have a closer look at some of the birds that are conspicuously present, but whose numbers or commonness we tend to take for granted.

The mild winter temperatures we have experienced during the first two weeks of January have given grace to the garden visiting birds to forage for natural food and there have been regular sightings of blackbird, robin, dunnock, house sparrows, great tit and blue tit doing just that. There were also a few visits from a beautiful song thrush earlier in the month, but I haven’t seen it lately. In the nearby trees there are regularly chaffinch, wood pigeon, collared dove,magpie and carrion crow. Then of course there are the herring gulls that regularly patrol the skies on the look out for a snack. They do make you think twice before putting out additional food for the garden birds, so is probably better offered confined to wire hanging feeders.

In the garden at the back of the house I often see two female blackbirds together that I think may be mother and daughter. This is the younger one with more mottled plumage. There is a male around, but I don't see him as often.

Starlings are everywhere, mostly sticking together in small flocks that travel around the area gathering in trees and on rooftops where they perch high on TV ariels  and chimney pots. They also frequent the rocks of the breakwaters in the harbour to forage amongst the rocks.

Starlings with an 'ariel' view of the Little Orme

Hanging up a feeder filled with fat balls has given me some lovely close up views of  the colourful and complexly marked plumage of individual birds.

The beautiful plumage of a starling feeding in the garden

European Starling – Sturnus vulgaris

Convervation status: Red

Still one of the commonest of UK garden birds, its decline elsewhere makes it a Red List species.

Family – Starlings (Sturnidae)

Smaller than blackbirds, Starlings are neatly shaped birds that have a short tail, a rather pointed head and triangular shaped wings. They appear to be coloured black at a distance, but when seen more closely they are in fact very glossy with an iridescent sheen of purples and greens. In fresh winter plumage they are brown, covered in brilliant white spots.

Their flight is fast and direct and they walk and run confidently on the ground. Noisy and gregarious, starlings spend a lot of the year in flocks.

Food and foraging behaviour

The European Starling is insectivorous, and typically consumes insects including caterpillars and moths, and also spiders. While the consumption of invertebrates is necessary for successful breeding, starlings are omnivorous and can also eat grains, seeds, fruits, nectars, and even rubbish, if the opportunity arises. There are several methods by which they forage for their food; but for the most part, they forage from or near the ground, taking insects from or beneath the surface of the soil by probing with their strong pointed bills. The bird plunges its beak into the ground randomly and repetitively until an insect has been found. Probing is often accompanied by bill gaping, where the bird opens its beak while probing to enlarge a dirt hole or to separate a lump of grass.  Generally, starlings prefer foraging amongst short-cropped grasses and are often found between and on top of grazing animals out to pasture.

Starlings are also adept at grabbing invertebrates directly from the air.

Song & calls

The Common Starling is a noisy bird uttering a wide variety of both melodic and mechanical-sounding sounds, including a distinctive “wolf-whistle”. Starlings are mimics, like many of its family.

Songs are more commonly sung by males, although females also sing. Songs consist of a mixture of mimicry, clicks, wheezes, chattering, whistles, rattles, and piping notes. Even when a flock of starlings is completely silent, the synchronized movements of the flock make a distinctive whooshing sound that can be heard hundreds of metres away.

Starlings are resident all year round in the UK, with their population boosted by large numbers of migrants that  arrive in autumn to spend the winter here.

As the shorter autumn/winter days draw to an end the birds head for their night-time roosts, gathering together in large numbers. Huge roosts may be found in a variety of locations including reed beds and city centres. In this area they head for the old pier at Colwyn Bay, performing their wonderful aerobatic display nightly and completely free of charge.

House Sparrow -Passer domesticus

House sparrow male

House Sparrows have always held a special place in my heart and I consider myself lucky that in each place I have lived there has been a little colony living alongside us, often literally sharing the building.  The local House Sparrow population here seem to be thriving; they had a successful breeding season last year and on several occasions towards the end of last summer I counted up to thirty birds feeding on the berries of the pyracantha hedge. Their plumage also merits a closer look, the shades of brown range from almost black, chocolate and chestnut to creamy white on the male, with females necessarily being restricted to more subtle shades, but still attractively marked.

The male is duller in fresh non-breeding plumage, with buff tips on many feathers. Wear and preening expose bright markings of brown and black, including a throat and chest patch, called a “bib” or a “badge”. This patch is variable in width and general size, and some scientists have suggested that patches signal social status or fitness,  although studies have only conclusively shown that patches increase in size with age. In breeding plumage, the male has a grey crown, and is marked with black on its throat and beneath the crown. The cheeks and underparts are pale grey. The female has no black on head or throat, nor a grey crown and its upperparts are streaked with brown. The juvenile is deeper brown, and the white is replaced by buff; the beak is pink to dull yellow.

House Sparrow female

The House Sparrow is a bird of the sparrow family Passeridae, found in most parts of the world occuring naturally in most of Europe, the Mediterranean region, and much of Asia. Its intentional or accidental introductions to many regions, including parts of Australia, Africa, and the Americas, make it the most widely distributed wild bird. A small bird, it has a length of 16 centimetres (6.3 in) and a weight of 24–39.5 grams (0.85–1.39 oz).

The House Sparrow is a very social bird. It is gregarious at all seasons when feeding, often forming flocks with other types of bird. It also roosts communally, its nests are usually grouped together in clumps, and it engages in a number of social activities, such as dust and water bathing, and “social singing”, in which birds call together in bushes. The House Sparrow feeds mostly on the ground, but it flocks in trees and bushes. For the larger part it is sedentary, rarely moving more than a few kilometres. Non-breeding House Sparrows roost in large groups in trees, gathering some time before and calling together.

At feeding stations and nests, females are dominant despite their smaller size

The House Sparrow is strongly associated with human habitations, and can live in urban or rural settings. They have been much persecuted in the past for helping themselves to our domestic crops and their numbers in towns and cities have declined massively. However, the intelligent little birds continue to adapt to our generally messy eating habits as sources of easy pickings and are often found around the areas where food is consumed outside, they inhabit zoos and wildlife parks; others gain access to the inside spaces of supermarkets and some birds have even learned how to operate the automatic doors.

To many people across the world, the House Sparrow is the most familiar wild animal. One of the reasons for the introduction of House Sparrows throughout the world was their association with the European homeland of many immigrants. Often it is regarded as a pest, since it consumes agricultural products and is blamed for the spread of disease to humans and their domestic animals. In most of the world the House Sparrow is not protected by law and attempts to control their numbers still include the trapping, poisoning, or shooting of adults; the destruction of their nests and eggs; or less directly, blocking nest holes and scaring off sparrows with noise, glue, or porcupine wire. However, attempts at the large-scale control of the House Sparrow have failed.

I came across this nature bulletin several years ago when researching the status of house sparrows introduced into other countries and loved it, so am passing it on.


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‘But it is the common species that keep the living world ticking over and provide most of our experiences of wildlife, and I would argue that maintaining the abundance of these is as important a conservation priority as maintaining the existence of rarities’. Richard Mabey

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