My Starlings Have Disappeared

[Nickynockynoonoo]

I have had 30+ starlings feeding every day for the past 2 years. I have only seen 1 since last week. A magpie has been dive bombing lately. Could it have scared them off?

[Elean0r]

A lot of starlings overwinter here, so they might have gone home.

[aeshna5]

I doubt a Magpie would scare the adults of for long, though it would certainly try + grab an inexperienced youngster once they leave the nest, but haven't seen any youngsters out + about yet.

Possibly as suggested above they were migrants + moved locally for breeding.

[artdemole]

Local flock of 80 plus have gone down to about 15 now.Have about 10 on feeder station still on fat balls every evening but just one's and two's in paddock at rear.

[JV]

Dont worry.
In the winter lots of starlings 20ish came to my garden but know its springso more natural food is out so only a few will come to the garden.
Magpies wouldnt scare them off. A couple of starlings fought of a crow in my garden!

[AndrewB]

Originally Posted by Nickynockynoonoo

I have had 30+ starlings feeding every day for the past 2 years.

Yikes , it must have cost you a fortune! or do you have a relatively inexpensive way of feeding them?

[Nickynockynoonoo]

Originally Posted by AndrewB

Yikes , it must have cost you a fortune! or do you have a relatively inexpensive way of feeding them?

Yes, it does cost quite a bit, even though I make the fat cake for them. I usually get through 1Kg per day.

500g Lard
1 Tbspoon peanut butter
500g rolled oats, seed and raisins.

As we had visitors last week, I decided to buy a bucket of balls and not bother making cake every day. Perhaps they have been too spoilt.

Last year, they were here all year round. I even added powdered eggshells to the cake to help them lay strong eggs.

I'll go back to my home made cake and see if they reappear. I'll keep you posted.

[rossy]

funny you mention the starlings, still got them coming in on the feeders , but whats concerning me is the local ones which nest over the road havent even started to take any nesting material in, which i think is a little odd as normally they have, strange behaviour is something about to happen ? rossy