Help. My neighbours seem to be feeding 5000 starlings

[CanIDigIt]

AIBU to ask my neighbours to change their bird food and try to deter the starlings?

Dawn till dusk the noise is incessant. I have an almighty headache.

I've had to rewash three loads of laundry this week from droppings.

Is it just the time of year? I've lived here 4 years although obviously I'm at home A LOT right now. They are a complete nuisance.

How can I deter the starling flocks ?

Yabu. We have them nesting. They're awesome. Theres really nothing you can do about it.

It's magpies by me. Incessant noisy fuckers.

I've just moved house and my new house has a gravel garden. I did wonder why it was so popular with starlings as it has a membrane under the gravel, I assumed it was my new planting but no.
It's the billions of small black spiders that live in the gravel. You can see them scampering about.
I'm hoping they don't turn into massive black spiders come autumn.
The starlings are welcome to them.

I wonder what she's feeding them.
I have a tree in my garden that's always full of twittering little birds. I bought a feeder to hang in it and a lovely selection of bird foods to put on it. I haven't seen 1 of the little buggers using it yet.

Oysterbabe it'll take them a while to come for breakfast lunch and dinner but when they decide it's safe, they'll come.

We have loads of starlings amongst other birds in our garden but the starlings are the funniest. All the squabbling and screeching, it's like having small children again

They will speed their way through the fat balls but those coconut filled husks are like crack cocaine to them, so we stopped using those.

Not really fussed if my neighbours hate them. I'm not keen on my neighbours with their garden covered in slabs and fake grass...

How are the robins cheeky? Mine is quiet and timid. Tbh he is overrun by massive flock of sparrows😂

3 magpies took down and killed a big fat pigeon on my grass, when they'd had their fill and buggered off, all the little birds were eating it

Starlings are great mimics, when my kids were young there was a local starling used to make the sound of their bicycle bells.

I have bought some starling proof feeders so the smaller, more timid birds get a look in.

I'm keeping the old feeders up too, so I'm not depriving the starlings of food!

SignOnTheWindow I hate to be the bearer of bad news but, starlings are clever buggers and worked out how they could get the food out of the supposed starling proof feeders when their fat balls ran out.

ive been throwing food up on my garage roof spread out a mix of grated bread cheese grated, fat balls grated, sunflower hearts and bird seed, first thing in the morning when I put it out I call it the starling squadron theres about twenty of them, then come the 4 crows and the magpie who struts round like he owns the place, ten minutes later and all the bigger stuff has gone and the starlings and bigger birds have gone, this allows mr blackbird the two wood pigeons and the sparrows their feast of the seeds

No starlings at all round here, but lots of other birds on my feeders. Sadly magpies moved in a couple of years ago, but we still seem to have plenty of sparrows, chaffinches, bullfinches, goldfinches, siskin, serins, a nuthatch, woodpeckers, blackbirds, robins and all sorts of tits. We now seem to have been adopted by a pair of mallards who have taken up residence. However, on Friday, our evening "entertainment' was a mallard gang-bang on the front lawn

I don't trust them. They ARE plotting something

War, probably. Our Magpies and Crows are currently engaged in daily skirmishes with invading Shitehawks who have lost their ancestral feedings grounds of secondary school playgrounds and are confused as to what they should be doing now the Magic Beeps can't summon them to their 12.40, 1.00 and 1.30pm feeds of sandwich crusts and chicken bones.

They were all having an aerial punchup over a carrier bag containing a box from the kebab shop yesterday. It ended with a triumphant crow flying at low altitude with the prize in his beak until he dropped it and it bounced against my front wall like a bloody Dambuster.

We have them here, They are fearless.I live in a row of eight terrace cottages.There are six cats between us all, three of them mine. The starlings are quick,noisy and fearless, and couldn't give a fig about any of the cats.

My friend talk me gulls in the city centre are attacking and eating pigeons... Maybe you are right about wars @MitziK
Hopefully they won't create an alliance! We would be fucked

Since sticking out mealworms I've had a flock of starlings in my garden (they've decimated my lavender plants as they strip them to build nests!) However I have a bad leatherjacket infestation in my lawn so I'm quite grateful they're coming and eating the horrid things!

Thanks @Binglebong here are some more of the starlings!

Wow the details are exquisite! Although slightly concerned about the apparently double sized chick.

Thank you

Yes, the chicks are as big as their parents, which we find hilarious as they stand there, squawking very loudly and waiting for their poor mum/dad(?) to feed them. They haven't yet attempted to get on the bird feeder to feed themselves. They still seem to be learning how to find their balance when they are waiting on the frame as they are sometimes a bit wobbly. Hopefully they will work it out one day, and when they do I shall be waiting with my camera!

🐦

YANBU - watching with interest. They are pests! At least mine are.
Watching a few from a safe distance... yes, that`s lovely! but when you have to clean up their shit regularly as small kids stepping in them...
Nope, no starling love here either!

We have a nest in our eaves at the front and back every year. I feed the birds every day and theres about 20 or 30 Starlings come down. A fledgling fell out the nest last week and a cat went for it but me and the other starlings diving at the cat managed to get the baby safe. Our front garden is on to a busy road so the spca came and collected it as it wasnt safe for it. We get lots of Starlings, occasional magpie, crow, pigeons, loads of sparrows who now all land right next to me. I love it. The fledglings are now coming right up to the hole in the eaves to get fed now so dont think it will be long until they leave.

I was excited to see a woodpecker in garden the other day. I don't know how unusual they are though.

Our pecking order is similar

Robin at the top of the little birds
Bluetits
Sparrows

Then the bigger birds we have
Crows (currently nesting in our chimney and only comes to the bird feeder a couple of times a day)
A pair of doves (decided mating on the bird feeder was a great idea)
Pigeon.

The starlings rarely use the bird feeder but we have a huge infestation of leatherjackets in the grass that they are going mad for.

Forgot Mr and Mrs black bird who hop along the fence and eat the worms.