Starling Mimicry (3 Viewers)

[throstle]

(I'm a newbie on here so sorry if this has been covered before but I can't see it listed)

Starlings (Sternus vulgaris) are not everyone's favourite bird but I really like them. They used to be regular visitors to my garden feeders but sadly their numbers have declined in Britain in recent years and now rarely visit :-(


We still occasionally get males 'singing' from our chimney however - you have to admire their enthusiasm if not their melody

I was just wondering which other birds/sounds other people have heard starlings mimic. I have heard several different phones being imitated as well as the first few notes of an ice-cream van's bell (Greensleeves). Birds I have listed include blackbird, song thrush, redshank, buzzard and a very passable yaffle from a green woodpecker!

OK so lyre birds they ain't but full marks for effort.

Any more you've heard?

 

[fugl]

On a couple of occasions in western Nevada I've heard starlings give excellent imitations of the whinny of the Sora. Quite startling to hear the call of this slinker through cattails coming from the top of a big cottonwood.

 

[Missyburd]

Car alarms seem popular with the starlings on our chimney, and I've heard a convincing yaffle from them too

 

[throstle]

Great stuff fugl, yep I would imagine that would have you puzzled for a few moments

I was sitting in my garden having an early morning cuppa when I heard a green woodpecker calling, had me fooled for a time until I located the culprit - strange thing was a couple of weeks later one turned up for real in an ash tree a few gardens down...first and only time so far.

Oh yes Missyburd, I forgot about the car alarms - they're pretty good at those aren't they?

 

[Kentbloke]

I'm a Starling fan to, as you say for their endless enthusiasm for 'singing' seemingly throughout the whole year, as soon as the sun shines! When my daughter was little, she was amazed that I could communicate with Starlings - she of course didn't know that if you imitate their rising and falling whistle they cant help themselves but whistle back!

 

[Monahawk]

A class bird in my estimation. Locally I have heard them mimic green woodpecker and little owl, two birds absent from Ireland, so these were from foreign birds. I have also been fooled into thinking there was a local waxwing one winter only to find it was a starling, no doubt another foreigner. The immitation was absolutely spot on.

Si.

 

[KC Foggin]

I have a friend who rescued a European Starling and wound up keeping it as it took a long time for it to recover from its wounds (they are not protected here so he was breaking no laws). It was amazing the amount of words this Starling could mimic.

 

[throstle]

Great stories guys, I like how those birds took their foreign repertoire to Ireland and that I'm not alone in hearing 'yaffling' starlings.
That sounds like great fun Kentbloke - imitating the imitators!
Wow, I've never actually heard starlings 'speak' but I guess it's wouldn't be surprising if they were around humans so much.

 

[Edward]

I have heard "my" Starlings do Redwing (very often), Blackbird, Redpoll, Snow Bunting, Oystercatcher, Redshank, Whimbrel, Golden Plover, Ringed Plover, Black-tailed Godwit.

 

[stevo]

Heard them mimic a telephone before.


Steve.