The starling is a useful and singing bird

The starling is a bird belonging to the order of passerine, a family of starling. The body length is about 23 cm, and the weight is about 75 g. Due to the short neck and massive body, the impression of awkwardness is created. His legs are strong with large Curved claws. Beak long, thin, yellow, slightly downward. The tail is short, straight. The color of feathers in the spring is black with a metallic sheen and has a starling. The bird, whose description of the plumage depends on the time of the year, turns black by the autumn with white specks.

About the benefits of an ordinary starling, which was discussed above, they know practically everything from childhood. In the spring they walk through fields, parks and gardens, looking out and eating insects and larvae. In the summer, they feed on caterpillars and beetles, and during the feeding season the nestlings fly to the nest about 300 times a day, bringing several bugs each time.

An ordinary starling is a migratory bird, wintering flying to warm countries, as a rule, to the north of Africa or the south of Europe. After such journeys in the repertoire of this singing bird, there are various "potpourri", including "African melodies", borrowed from birds on wintering grounds.

Many people associate a starling with a birdhouse, and in fact it is a forest bird, arranging its nests in hollows in trees. But it is not easy to find them. A person wants to settle this useful ptahu closer to him, that's what he sets up birdhouses. And "work" to her near human habitation is always.

In addition to the ordinary species, an interesting representative of this family is a pink starling - a bird that fully justifies its name. It settles near the steppes, desert or semi-desert plains, since it feeds mainly on locusts. Of course, if it does not, it can eat other insects. But locusts are important. For her, he is able to fly a long distance. A day can eat up to 200 grams of locust (twice the weight of its own) pink starling. The bird and her offspring feed her.

These ptahs move in dense packs. From a distance it seems that this is some sort of pink cloud. Falling to the ground, they continue to move in one direction, Collecting and eating insects on the run. Pink starling - the bird is peace-loving, fighting and quarrels do not arise between them. They settle in colonies for several hundred pairs. Nests are arranged in crevices of rocks, in various burrows, between stones.

And also to this family belongs the earliest starling - a bird that only resembles its relatives, living exclusively in Africa. The adjective in the title received for the fact that during the breeding season, males appear on their heads with fleshy growths resembling earrings. Nests they build on trees, and not in hollows, using many dry twigs, creating a dome-shaped structure. There can be a lot of such "houses" on one plant, because This bird is also colonial. It feeds exclusively locust starling starling. The bird even takes off the chicks at a time when these insects stop moving and stop for reproduction. With the resumption of the movement of the locust, the birds are removed from the spot and follow it.

Such different are starlings, but all of them, certainly, are useful for the person. In some nations, even the crime of killing this wonderful bird is considered a crime.