Lots of Starlings

[rocky_robin]

please help

I am a keen bird feeder and last year through the bad winter had starlings which fed from my garden! Over the months the amount of starlings coming into my garden has grown. I buy suet pelletts and usually get through about 10 bags a week!

Over the last week i have an enormous number of Starlings in my garden feeding and they are also bringing in their babies... We are talking probably 100 starlings a time, as they like the suet pelletts i'm putting out about 6bags a day! When there is no food down i look at the babies and feel sorry for them!!! They don't seem to like cheap seeds!! or have i just spoilt them>?

is there anything else i can put out for them to eat, I've put bread out but bother about the babies choking even though i break the bread up!

Any advice woud be great!

[Pigeon feather]

Starlings love fat balls they are relatively cheap and won't be eaten up as quickly as suet pellets as they have to work for their food, pound shops sell 6 for £1 and these usually last a week or two, starlings are not seed eating birds but may eat a few up if mixed with other foods.

[rocky_robin]

Thanks Pigeon Feather! I have put a few fat balls out but these are devoured within minutes!! These sure are hungry birds! The parents fly off and leave all the babies waddling around the garden , which is lovely to see! They make such a terrifc noise that i'm bothered the neighbours will start to complain!!

Thanks again for the advice.

[Picidae]

I've got exactly the same problem! They've got through several kilos of suet pellets in the past few days and I've resorted this morning to simply chucking fat balls out on the patio (which they peck at before flying back to a now empty bird table.). I'll give in and by one more large bucket of pellets and hope they soon move off to join their post feeding flocks in the countryside! (Blinking noisy too but so far, fingers crossed, no complaints from my neighbours!)

[rossy]

same here as well but its great to watch, if you put out bread brown or white wet it first, chopped apples, suet , fat balls, crushed biscuits, you name it the starlings will eat it, most familys appear to have 3, 4 chicks and also plenty of house sparrows so seeds also, but how quick the young learn is quite amazing. rossy.

[rocky_robin]

Thanks everyone for your replies!

I shall continue to enjoy watching them and paying the price! I reckon its getting close to £50 a week now!

I just hope my other birds appreciate the noise and them pinching all their food my poor Blackbirds hardly get a look in!

[shenk1]

Once got told to try boiled rice mixed with melted fat and sultanas (by an rspb bloke),as it fills the chicks up quickly but is also good for them.
Not tried it yet though - still going through fat blocks and balls galore

[Kayleigh]

Originally Posted by shenk1

Once got told to try boiled rice mixed with melted fat and sultanas (by an rspb bloke),as it fills the chicks up quickly but is also good for them.
Not tried it yet though - still going through fat blocks and balls galore

It is certainly a lot cheaper to make your own as they will eat you out of house and home this time of year.

[Northumbrian guy]

I too have lots of starlings after feeding them over the winter, also plenty of Blackbirds, who all are comfortable eating around my feet- what do i feed them?
Cheap bags of dry mixed fruit from ASDA or Morrisons (65p a bag)- the sort you use to add to cakes if youre making them- the birds love it and its so much cheaper, all the young ones are now eating their own and so used to me, they tap on the kitchen window if they see me in there and i throw a few handfulls out!

[Angelika]

Same here in stoke,im putting loads of scones and fatballs out for them which they love,they are also bring there babies,as soon as i go out put the food out i can hear them but cant see them as soon as i go in and shut the door loads come down they demolish the food in about an hour then i put them another pile of food out and go work.