Where did all the starlings go?

I am unsure where you are but they also have been in decline in the Northeastern US.

Nowadays you can count them or see them infrequently, when at one time they were literally countless.” Scientists think the causes of the decline involve farming practices that have poisoned insect prey with pesticides and chopped down grassland habitat. Other farmland bird populations too are reeling from the impacts.

Here is an article about UK decline which is quite significant

Starlings show up here in Tacoma area in Spring. They leave in the Fall.

There has been a precipitous decline in numbers here in the UK. The huge swarms that gathered at evening are now a thing of the past. I have heard it is due to more intensive farming practises.

I remember reading and hearing about declining bird populations just a couple of years ago. It has really become a dire situation. We’re not talking about a decline of millions – it’s in the billions! 2.9 billion birds gone from North America and Europe since the 1970s. For me, on a personal level, it’s depressing and distressing. I grew up in VT and every day we’d see at least 10 different kinds of birds in our backyard. We had bird books and it was one of the few things that we were actually interested in as a family.

Common birds—the species that many people see every day—have suffered the greatest losses, according to the study. More than 90% of the losses (more than 2.5 billion birds) come from just 12 families including the sparrows, blackbirds, warblers, and finches.

https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/bring-birds-back/

Causes are, from worst to slightly less worst:

‍Agricultural expansion
Logging/Deforestation
Invasive Species
Hunting and Trapping
Climate Change

https://www.scienceofbirds.com/blog/top-5-global-threats-to-bird-populations

Thanks all. I was not aware of a universal decline in starlings and of other birds as well. Such a shame. Watching and listening to birds is one of life’s little pleasures.

But GMO crops and their pesticides are completely safe and definitely not to blame for the decline in birds and bees and other pollinators, right? /s

@Zaku Oh but of course! O_o

2.4 billion songbirds a year are killed by cats

^^ I do believe cats kill birds, but 2.4 billion per year?!

My link above says we’ve seen 2.9 billion disappear since the 1970s, so if the Wintuauduban society is claiming that cats kill 2.4 billion per year, I don’t think there would be any birds on the planet! Also, if it were true, then pesticides, deforestation, invasive species, hunting and climate change have very little effect on the disappearance of birds, so why should we worry about them? The cats killed the vast majority of the birds!

I would love to see any respectable study that makes that claim.

“A University of Nebraska study pins thirty-three bird extinctions on cat predation worldwide.” Where’s their link to this claim? Where’s the study?

They may have good intentions – to help save birds – but they’re not going about it very well by making outrageous claims with no backup.

We love watching birds, but my husband and I are fairly ignorant on the various names and species (is species the correct term?). I enjoyed this Q very much. Very interesting.

There are birding groups where I live that I have been meaning to go out with. One of my friends goes out at least once a week, takes lots of photos. We have lots of preserves and parks, and nature trails.

I don’t know if we have Starlings where I live.

Here is a link to a birding club here. You might enjoy the photos. https://www.villagebirders.org/

They are all here in Western NY right now!

@JLeslie I encourage you to go out with a birding group. I never have, but have been on nature walks. I would imagine that it would be quiet and relaxing, not to mention educational. I think you’d really enjoy it.

Thank you for the link – gorgeous pics. I live in NE and really should make a point of going to see the Sandhill Crane migration this year. I’ll have to wait for September because I’ve missed the spring one.

I also recommend going on a nature walk, particularly if you can find a group that regularly go on such walks. I once tagged along with such a group. They were really good at being able to spot birds. One person pointed to a tree near a pond and said that there was a kingfisher in it. After straining by eyes for a few seconds, I was able to see it. It is the only time I have ever seen a kingfisher.

@LuckyGuy, I live near Philadelphia and I have not seen a starling in years. Glad to hear that they can still be found not too far away.

I’m thinking poison is killing them. People recklessly throw down pesticides and insecticides without thinking they are also poisoning wildlife.It’s not just birds. Where I live there are also less squirrels and the few I see are smaller than before.

@smudges I have sandhill cranes all around me. Lots of babies right now.

^^ Oh yeah! I’d forgotten there’s a population there.

It’s not just birds being poisoned, a lot of times it’s food. A lot of birds eat insects and with insects being scarcer than they used to be, that means that a lot of birds are losing their food source. Seriously, I used to look out on a spring day and see little butterflies fluttering around everywhere. You couldn’t sit in the parking lot of a fast food place with your windows open because flies would be buzzing in and out and bees would be flying around. I remember looking outside on a summer night and seeing fireflies everywhere. I can’t remember the last time I saw any of those things I just mentioned. We are slowly destroying our ecosystem.

We are slowly destroying our ecosystem.

Yes, we are, and have been for long before we had any idea we even could. I hate to say this because it sounds sad and negative, but I’m glad I won’t be around to see the next 100 years, or even 50.

I am going to go a little off topic. It annoys me when people talk about animal rights. It is like saying you should not destroy a work of art because it has certain rights. This is the wrong approach. Biodiversity has value, even beyond the health of ecosystems, for the extraordinary variety and beauty of the natural world. We deprive ourselves and make this world so much more dreary when we drive species to extinction.

@LostInParadise I absolutely agree. Did someone here allude to rights? If so, I missed it, or are you “just sayin’ ”?

@LostInParadise I don’t know if I read anywhere in the comments people talking about this, but I will quantify it in saying that animals have a right to not be tortured. Now people will argue about what exactly that entails. Some people are vegetarians because they find it unacceptable with how animals that we eat are treated. When it comes to our pets, don’t let me catch you in any way hurting one of my cats, or even kicking a random dog on the street. So I’m not sure what you mean by rights, but I do think that we need to treat animals with kindness as much as possible. And I don’t say that from a vegetarian point of view so have at me if you will. Hopefully we can agree that unnecessary cruelty needs to stop.