How to feed starlings in early spring. Starling. What to feed starlings

The messenger of spring, the friend of the farmer, the mottled birdhouse - who has not seen him, who has not listened to his spring song!

In March, upon arrival, he sits at his favorite birdhouse and sings with rare passion. It opens its beak wide, flaps and shakes its wings, throws its head back high, inflating its neck. What can you hear in this song!

We had 20 birdhouses at the Bolshevskaya biological station. Near each there is a starling. I knew these birds intimately by song, and year after year I checked to see if they had all returned to their places after their long journey to the south. One of them screamed incomparably as a sandpiper. Another imitated lentils, so much so that every time I heard it, I began to doubt: had the lentils really arrived? The third has a signature number - imitation of a sparrow: he chirped for a long time. Another one also had a sparrow's chirp, but in addition he screamed like a jackdaw and clucked like a chicken. And so each starling had something of his own, something special, a favorite song.

One of my nurseling birds spent the whole summer in a common aviary with 30 other birds. Now, wintering in my room, he remembers everything he heard in the summer. Now he will sing like a goldfinch, and the goldfinches respond to him, now he will sing like a siskin, now he will crackle with the alarming cry of a robin. Now he listens to the singing bluethroat and slowly begins to repeat its song. So they sing alternately: she, when she hears his voice, and he, having listened to her song, tries to sing the same way, occasionally letting out his own birdhouse creaks and squeals.

The starling sings very quickly, the ear barely has time to catch who he is repeating. In general, starlings are amazingly zealous singers. In the cage they sing not only in winter, but also in autumn, even during molting, which none of our birds seems to do. They say that in the south, during wintering, starlings sing their songs, just like in their homeland. There are a lot of starlings in our country, several times more than there were before Bird Day was held on a large scale. This is the result of an increase in the number of birdhouses. In the south, the starling in some places begins to harm vineyards. In the central part of the country it is now necessary to install security in orchards when cherries ripen, which was not required before. Keeping starlings in captivity seems more reprehensible than keeping any other bird. After all, they are the ones we primarily attract to the houses that we hang on Bird Day.

I remember the hypocritical noise that bird sellers and buyers made at the bird market when some guy offered to buy a dozen young starlings from him. And at the same time, these same sellers tried to sell unknowing people “birch warblers” (as Moscow poultry farmers call the pied flycatcher), birds doomed to death in captivity and hardly less useful than the starling. It is worth keeping a starling in captivity.

Firstly, this is the only insectivorous bird in our country, the number of which is now quite sufficient. Therefore, keeping starlings in captivity will not affect the benefits brought by this species on the farm.

Secondly, there is no doubt that the starling tolerates captivity very easily. You can destroy him in a cage only by not caring about him at all.

And finally, thirdly, the starling can be used as a useful bird at home. If it is completely tame, then it can be kept in the garden or vegetable garden and taught to collect harmful insects.

The starling gets used to people very quickly, even becoming annoying. He has an excellent memory and distinguishes them well. This bird has special trust only in its owner and becomes completely wild with those who have harmed it. No matter who describes the starling, everyone considers it a wonderful bird for captivity. Naumann writes: “It is strange that starlings are so rarely kept in captivity. Maintaining them does not cost any effort at all, and they can provide plenty of pleasure. The starling, even caught in old age, is very easily tamed and is, without a doubt, one of the most pleasant house birds.

The starling is constantly cheerful and active, quick in its movements, attentive to everything that happens around it, curious to the extreme: it tries to inspect and feel everything with its beak. He lives quite tolerably in the same room with other birds and sometimes only bothers them with his eternal restlessness and extreme curiosity. One day I was greatly amused by the extreme flying and noise in the cage. I approached her and saw that the biggest prankster of my starlings had gotten himself a large piece of white paper from somewhere and, holding it in his beak, was flying after the other birds, apparently rejoicing at their vain fear and scream.”

Male starlings quite easily learn to pronounce some words of human speech.

A great lover and connoisseur of songbirds, I. I. Goremykin convinced me that females are also capable of this. One such bird said two words: “squawk” and “hush, hush.” M.P. Vavilov writes about a starling who knew the prayer “Our Father” (it has about fifty words, including prepositions and conjunctions).

A starling's cage should be somewhat special. Firstly, it needs to be made in large sizes, according to the height of the bird, which likes to run around the floor. A cage with a bottom area of 30X50 cm is just enough. Secondly, the bottom drawer, if it is retractable, must be deep, at least 2-3 cm. The whole of it is covered with sand. The starling is very voracious and gets dirty a lot, and most importantly, it constantly digs into the sand with its beak: it sticks it in and then forcefully opens it so that the sand flies in all directions. Thirdly, part of the grille 15-20 cm from the bottom must be covered from the outside with strips of glass or plywood so that the bird does not litter and splash when bathing. The starling loves to swim perhaps more than any other bird. The cage has to be covered with newspaper, and it gets wet through and through. And finally, the bathing suit, feeder and drink must be firmly fixed or they must be very heavy, for example clay: the bird tries to pick them up from below with its beak and instantly knocks over ordinary jars. For small birds, starlings are not at all dangerous, as is sometimes believed. I had a hatchling and a captured starling living in my large enclosure. Both of them never offended anyone. True, all the birds gave way to them, but the starlings never took advantage of their obvious advantages in strength: they lived as if not noticing their neighbors. The starlings were only at enmity with each other, but then suddenly they became friends. Wherever the fosterling flew, the Savage (he really was comparatively wild) followed him. So they ate, drank, bathed and rested on a branch together. However, in a small indoor cage, one of these starlings completely terrorized the robin that was sitting with it. I had to seat them. You can feed the starling. everything that any bird eats, including corvids: bread, any porridge, cottage cheese, raw and boiled meat, all grains (including hemp, which he swallows whole), carrots, apples, rowan berries, elderberries, cherries , chicken eggs, greens, ant eggs, mealworms and earthworms, you can’t count them all.

My starlings lived on white bread, soaked in milk (and often in water), and various berries (most often dry elderberry), which were constantly kept in the birds’ cage. Once a day, a thimbleful of ant eggs (usually dry) was given; sometimes - one of the foods listed above and irregularly - mealworms. Everyone who approached the cage considered it his duty to give the starling two or three worms. He always begged for them from those who came into the room, screaming and fluttering his wings. The starling took worms through the grate directly from his hands.

Feeding a starling taken from a nest is almost as easy as feeding a jackdaw or a crow, and it gets used to it well. I kept fosterlings more than once, and they were all funny and cute birds, favorites of our family and everyone around. One of them, picked up rumpled and with blood on his head (he was pulled out of the nest before my eyes by a jackdaw), was the darling of the whole village. He flew everywhere, everywhere he was greeted with affection, fed. However, he did not give in to anyone’s hands and did not let him get close to him. Only when I arrived at the dacha in the evening from work and whistled quietly, standing in the middle of a village street, from some birch tree. my starling flew down and sat on my shoulder. Having become friends with dogs (they were always in our house), the starling stopped being afraid of cats. This was his undoing. The cat caught the starling when he flew to the neighbors’ terrace, where he often got tidbits .

Another of my fosterlings even became a film artist. He starred in three films1 and played leading roles in two of them. According to the script, it was necessary to show how a starling looks for harmful insects and feeds their chicks with them. He conscientiously plowed a large piece of the garden with his beak until he finally found a cockchafer larva, which, however, had been placed in the ground in advance. The nesting bird flew to its house as if to feed the chicks and stuck its head into the entrance, although the birdhouse was empty and stood at a height of 1 m from the ground, next to a movie camera that was crackling, filming my fosterling at point-blank range, close-up.

It turned out to be quite easy to accustom the starling to all this. All it took was a little patience. So, from the second or third larva buried in front of the starling’s eyes, he already understood what was required of him. And with a birdhouse it’s even simpler: the starling was first given mealworms in it. The ratchet was used to accustom him to the sound of a movie camera. He wasn’t afraid of people before. That's all. Judge for yourself whether it is difficult to teach a starling different things.

Our last birdling was raised by students at the Zvenigorod Biological Station. He was needed for experiments. It was planted in a meadow or forest under a gauze canopy over a platform of a certain size. The bird conscientiously looked for all the insects here. Observers, whom the starling, of course, was not at all afraid of, recorded his every movement. So he “counted” all the insects for us at the experimental site, and we found out how much time he needed to destroy them. We finished working with the starling and released him into the wild, fortunately he knew how to feed on insects himself and flew excellently.

Where should he, a human fosterling, go? I'm used to people, but I'm not used to starlings. So he flew all over our territory. Sometimes he was seen on the river, in the morning - near the tents, and at lunch, of course, near the dining room.

A speaker came to us from Moscow. We settled down in a clearing, set up a table, and two hundred students sat in a semicircle. And suddenly, in the middle of the report, a starling swooped down from a nearby linden tree and ran a few steps away from the newcomer. He looked at the bird in amazement: it was looping very close, but he did not stop the lecture. The starling took off and sat down on the table. Our speaker recoiled and fell silent. There was an awkward pause, which the bird took advantage of. Quickly, quickly, picking at the bottom according to the bird's habit, she grabbed the pieces of paper that were lying on the table and threw them on the ground. This is where the students stepped in. The starling was grabbed and thrown into the air (then he sat for a long time with an “offended look” on the very top of a neighboring oak tree). The abstracts were collected, put in order, and the speaker, having recovered from his amazement, continued the lecture.

A tame starling that flies freely around the garden can be trained to exterminate pests. Once you show him where the gooseberry moth caterpillar is hiding in a currant or gooseberry, the bird will conscientiously inspect the bushes and swallow insects.

Having discovered and tasted cabbage white caterpillars, the starling will diligently begin to inspect the cabbage heads in the garden and, of course, collect pests better than a human would. The bird “works” where the owner places it or where he is: tame birds love to be close to humans.

In a room where there are a lot of flies, a starling, even without any training, can be engaged in catching them from morning to evening - a very useful task for us and, apparently, pleasant for him. He can eat up to a thousand flies in a day, which means his help is not insignificant. Every true bird lover should get himself “free” starlings whenever possible. In a village, in a country house, in a small town, you can always hang one or several birdhouses near the house. Their size inside is 13 X 13 X 28 cm or a little more, the diameter of the entrance is about 5 cm. You need to put together a birdhouse more tightly, without gaps, from boards 2 cm thick and hang it on any tree higher, 8-10 m from the ground." If If the house has a garden or vegetable garden, then the starlings will not only entertain the owner with their cheerful songs, but, by collecting harmful insects, they will also take care of a good harvest.The myna2, the sacred bird of the Indians, which has been protected in India for thousands of years, began to appear more and more often and in large quantities in our country: it spreads from India to the north. 3 Over the last decade, this bird has become common in the Bukhara and Samarkand regions. It is larger than its northern brother, the common starling, and its plumage is significantly different. The bird is a beautiful red-brown color, with a black head and shirt front, with white markings on the wings, on the tail and on the undertail.More information about attracting starlings can be read in the author’s book “Protection and Attraction of Beneficial Birds”,

The myna turned out to be a not very welcome immigrant in our country: in many places it began to harm vineyards. Nevertheless, the population loves her. The myna is appreciated as a bird for captivity.

Mynas nest in destroyed buildings, in hollows of trees near human habitation, in a word, where the chicks are easy to get out of the nest. Chicks in captivity are undemanding. They can be fed boiled meat and bread, and occasionally insects. Mynahs raised by humans show a rare affection for him. They recognize the owner in a crowd of people and follow him everywhere. Such birds, of course, do not live in a cage, but in the wild, collecting berries and insects, and feeding them at home.

Adults also catch mynahs. Uzbeks often keep them in quail nets. This bird can live for many years in captivity. The myna's ability to imitate is remarkable. She weaves different sounds into her song: whistling, laughter, the voice of a donkey driver and the cry of this animal. Birds easily learn to speak. G. A. Sidorova told me about a mynah that spoke a few words. "Who's the commotion?" - she shouted at the owner’s request, and all other words were only at her own request. Among them were “Malya” (the dog’s name), “Come in”, “Luda”.

It is not often possible to see mynah in captivity in the European part of the country, but it is still found here. In March 1960, a large batch of these birds was delivered to Moscow from Central Asia and went on sale in pet stores.

Bird lovers who have visited the homeland of the mynah rarely return to their north without it - a living memory of sunny Uzbekistan. Yes, it cannot be otherwise: anyone who at least once sees this beautiful and funny bird in captivity will certainly be eager to keep it.

Another relative of our common starling lives in the south of the country, mainly in the Asian part. This is the pink starling, an ever-wandering flocking bird, a famous locust destroyer. The services it provides to the agriculture of Central Asia and the Lower Volga region are very great.

The pink starling is rare, much less common than the myna, and is found in captivity. Its advantages include, first of all, its beautiful appearance. The combination of pink and black colors is very impressive. Unfortunately, in captivity it loses its bright color at the first molt. This bird, like all starlings, is very active, fast in its movements and unusually voracious.

Several years ago, a batch of pink starlings was brought to the Moscow Bird Market and sold out. Apparently, they still live in some places, since they are long-lived and easily endure captivity.

Who doesn't know these black birds with a metallic tint?, for which many houses are hung every spring?

Starlings willingly settle in hollows hollowed out by woodpeckers, they also nest in niches of old trees.

The first male scouts arrive to the central zone of the European part of our country following the rooks - in the second half of March. A week later, the females also appear.

Everyone receives the news of the arrival of starlings with a joyful smile: another undoubted sign of a beautiful spring.

But they are already beginning to take a liking to nesting sites. And what genuine delight it evokes in children, and also in adults, that a pair of these entertaining birds takes up residence in an artificial birdhouse!

Now just have time to watch behind this feathered family. Here is the first blue egg. And a complete clutch, according to my observations, consists of 4-6 eggs. Incubation most often begins after the penultimate egg is laid. But young birds can start this much earlier.

Two weeks passed. And inquisitive naturalists can see chicks already covered with rare down. This is where the difficult time for parents begins. For more than sixteen hours a day they hunt for food for their insatiable screamers.

They carry and carry various insects to their chicks, mainly pests of agriculture and forestry. And each chick opens its beak dozens of times a day to swallow the next portion. Chicks grow quickly with this diet. On the 20-22nd day they begin to fly away from the nest. And now, you see, they are uniting in flocks.

Observations of starlings in natural conditions are very interesting. But this was always not enough for me, and I kept birds at home, which gave me great pleasure. Starlings sing in a cage throughout the year, with the exception of the molting period, but some of them do not stop singing even in such a painful state for birds.

Certainly, buying a good bird is not an easy task. Their singing, like many other mockingbirds, is very individual. But among the mediocre singers there are those that lovers of birdsong always dream of.

Once, in one of the villages of the Kaluga region, I was able to listen to a starling, who, in addition to singing his main song, also imitated the barking of a dog, the cackling of a hen, the neighing of a foal, and even the ringing of church bells.

Starlings are very undemanding when it comes to food. You can feed them any food scraps from the table. But still, lovers should know that they prefer cottage cheese, meat, various cereals, chicken eggs, white bread dipped in milk or water. It is advisable to add mealworms, various beetles and other insects to the diet.

Starlings love to swim. Therefore, you need to place a bath of water in the cage, or even better, hang special bathing suits that are commercially available from the open door. According to my observations, starlings tolerate cold well. It seems that they fly south in the fall only because of winter lack of food.

It is no coincidence that starlings do not leave those places where they can find food in winter. In some years, in the Kuzminsky forest park of Moscow and in the adjacent territory, starlings, as if ahead of their time, even in January whistle their songs from snow-covered birdhouses.

One spring I hung a birdhouse on the third floor balcony. The next day a starling flew here. He immediately began dragging building material into his chosen house - scraps of paper, last year's grass, dry leaves, ash seeds and even yellow coltsfoot inflorescences. So the male covered the bottom of the birdhouse. When his girlfriend flew to him, the two of them began to finish building the nest. Soon the eggs appeared, and then the chicks.

But sometimes the male who has settled in the house cannot find a girlfriend. In such cases, the starling is left alone.

But if you don’t bother him too much, he won’t leave his favorite place. And then, opposite the open window, as if as a sign of gratitude, the yellow-billed starling will amuse you with its songs.

Yu. Novikov, naturalist.

The article will tell you how to properly prepare food for wintering birds in feeders.

A person often feels the desire to take care of “our little brothers.” If you can't afford to volunteer at animal shelters or send monthly donations to voluntary animal welfare organizations, feeding local birds during the winter season is within your power. By creating a feeder in your yard or on your balcony, you not only provide food for small feathered creatures, you give them a chance to survive, extending their life for several days, weeks, or harsh winters.

Of course, you shouldn’t expect gratitude from the little creatures; they will help you at another time - in the summer, when they begin to eat harmful insects (mosquitoes, larvae, flies, ants, aphids and worms), which interfere with growing decent crops. And you must agree that feeding birds will not hurt your pocket, but will bring a pleasant feeling of accomplishment.

IMPORTANT: If you decide to feed birds in the winter season, when it is difficult for them to find food for themselves, it is important to know that in winter their diet is significantly different from in summer. Birds need high-calorie food, but not harmful food (otherwise you will simply kill them).

What you can feed:

Food:	Peculiarities:	Who eats:
Sunflower (seeds)	Seeds should make up almost 70-75% of the total feed (they are filling and high in calories, and contain a lot of fat)	Tits, woodpeckers, sparrows, nuthatches and other granivorous birds
Millet
Millet	Dry food (often sold as pet parrot food in pet stores)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Oats	Raw or boiled cereal (without spices and oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Wheat	Raw or boiled cereal (without spices and oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Rice	Raw or boiled cereal (without spices and oil)	Sparrows, goldfinches, pigeons, greenfinches and other granivores
Meat	Pieces of raw or dried meat, finely chopped. Without any salt or spices!
Salo	Raw lard without salt! It can be strung on a thread and hung	Tits, nuthatches and other species (crows, jackdaws and magpies may arrive)
Beef fat or chicken fat	It can be mixed with bread or placed separately in the feeder. Fat should not be salty!	Tits, nuthatches and other species (crows, jackdaws and magpies may arrive)
Dried rowan (viburnum, hawthorn)	The berries must be prepared in advance and dried in the fall. They can be placed in a feeder or hung with beads	Bullfinches, waxwings
Maple seeds (lionfish)	They should be collected in the fall, when they fall from the trees. In winter, such food is often inaccessible to birds, as it is covered with leaves. Mud and snow	Bullfinches, waxwings
Cones	From various types of coniferous trees, should be collected in the fall	Woodpeckers, crossbills
Nuts	Any fresh nuts, not salted (like store-bought peanuts) and not roasted	Woodpeckers jays and other species
Acorns	Gathered in autumn	jays
Corn	Dried
Watermelon and melon grains	Good source of fats and nutrients (prepared in the summer, dried)	Bullfinches, jays, woodpeckers
Pumpkin seeds	Good source of fats and nutrients (prepared in the fall)	All granivorous bird species
Chicken egg shell	Serves as a good calcium supplement (you can put a piece of natural chalk in the feeder)	For all types of birds

What not to feed birds in a feeder in winter: list of products

What you need to know about junk food for birds:

Of course, in winter birds need fatty foods such as meat and lard. However under no circumstances should these be salty foods, since such food can kill small creatures, causing them dehydration and intoxication in the excretory organs.
Meat, lard and fat should be given in pure form, you can mix these ingredients with other food (grains, boiled cereals or bread).
You can't give black bread - This product, prepared with rye flour, can cause upset and diarrhea in birds, which will lead to their death. There is a lot of salt in black bread, and it also leads to disruption of the kidneys and liver in birds.
Rye bread can ferment in the crops of birds and kill them, since there is much more yeast in it than in wheat.

What not to add to the feeder:

Salty foods
Fried food
Spicy food
Sour foods
Citrus fruits (even peel)
Banana peel and fruit
Milk
Roasted nuts
Spicy products

Why can’t you feed birds salted lard and fried seeds?

Any disease that affects a bird in the winter becomes many times more dangerous for it than it would be in the summer. Gastrointestinal diseases in birds are quite common, as during harsh winters they may eat junk food in search of survival. This food is offered to them by a person who knows little about the feeding habits of animals.

INTERESTING: It turns out that chewing gum thrown away by humans is often perceived by birds as a piece of bread. They peck at it, but then die, since the chewing gum completely inhibits and clogs their digestive tract.

When offering lard to tits and other birds, make sure that you do not cut it from the salty part. Salt is poison for birds. Their kidneys and liver cannot digest and remove it, and therefore such a product will be certain death for the small creature.

It would seem that sunflower seeds are the healthiest food for birds. But only if the seeds are raw. Roasted seeds absorb too much fat and the birds’ gastrointestinal tract cannot absorb it, causing poisoning, diarrhea and indigestion, which is very destructive for most species.

Which birds come to the feeder in winter, and which bird will not appear at the feeder in winter?

When installing a feeder, you should be aware that it is always a source of debris. Therefore, feeders have no place on windowsills and balconies of houses (your neighbors may complain). It is best to install it on trees at a height where they will not be accessible to children who want to misbehave and knock it down (or add junk food).

It is possible that along with the “good-natured” birds, you will also notice “brazen” thieves such as crows, pigeons, magpies and jackdaws. However, most often they eat in feeders:

Sparrows
Bullfinches
Tits
Nuthatches
jays
Goldfinch
Crossbill
Pika
Waxwing

What is the best way to feed sparrows, titmice, bullfinches, woodpeckers, and waxwings in a feeder in winter?

If you can afford to buy birdseed, do so periodically at a pet store. There you can easily select food from a mixture of millet, oats, wheat and sunflower seeds. This food can be combined with dried rowan berries, pieces of white bread (or bread crumbs), animal fat and lard.

IMPORTANT: The feeder should be updated as the food is consumed. Do not pour too much food at once, because birds often defecate while eating and this spoils some of the food.

What birds eat rowan in winter?

The bright red berries of rowan berries often attract birds. These berries, dried by humans and added to a feeder or left hanging on a tree, serve as food for:

Ryabinnikov
Drozdov
Bullfinches
Waxwings

What cereal can be given to birds in the feeder in winter? Is it possible to feed birds in a feeder in winter with millet, corn, wheat, pearl barley, barley, buckwheat, oats, rolled oats, rice, oatmeal?

Cereals are a satisfying, nutritious and healthy food for all granivorous birds. It can be added raw or dry, boiled, or half-cooked. It is important not to add salt to porridge during cooking, not to add sugar or spices, or to add oil (with the exception of a small amount of natural animal fat: beef or chicken).

What cereal can be given to wintering birds:

Buckwheat
Millet
Oatmeal (rolled oats, flakes)
Perlovka
Corn
Wheat

Is it possible to feed birds in a feeder in winter with pumpkin, watermelon, sunflower seeds?

Preserving melon seeds from the summer is far from difficult when you eat watermelons, melons and pumpkins. To do this, they should be rinsed well with running water and dried in the sun to remove moisture. Such seeds are an excellent nutritious and healthy food for all wintering birds, because they contain dietary fiber and oils. It is easily digestible and gives birds a boost of energy for the winter.

Is it possible to feed birds in a feeder in winter with crackers, bread, and fresh lard?

As already mentioned, bread is not an ideal food for birds, but it is acceptable. However, we are talking only about white and unleavened bread. It should be dried or crumbled. It is also allowed to add white bread crackers to the feeder, hanging them on thick threads.

IMPORTANT: If you put pieces of raw, unsalted lard and meat into feeders, it is also recommended to string them on strings with beads so that the birds do not lose this food, do not drop it from the feeder, or try to swallow it whole, but pinch off a piece at a time.

Video: “Wintering birds”

From this article you will learn what to feed starling chicks at home. Little “mockingbirds” often fall into the hands of humans after falling from the nest or being injured, and in the process of taming they become excellent pets. People can gain the trust of adult starlings, as well as birds just beginning their lives.

What to feed your feathered friend

Starlings are birds that consume food of plant and animal origin. They eat insects, worms, and caterpillars, which benefit agricultural land. A flock of these birds can significantly reduce grain yield if they need food. They also use farms, vineyards, and orchards with fruit trees as food sources.

It is best if your feathered pet eats food at home that is similar to what it eats in its natural environment. You can feed starlings by introducing grated vegetables, fruits, and chopped berries into their diet. You can also consume it in moderation:

meat: chicken, beef;
low-fat cottage cheese without sourness;
bread (for starlings - always soaked in milk).

It will be easier for them to eat meat if they first cut it into thin strips. You can also give some fish fillet (without salt). When the birds get used to the new conditions, mashes are introduced - these are mixtures of ingredients in different proportions.

For example, a nightingale mixture consisting of a grated egg, previously hard-boiled, carrots, also grated, and soaked crackers. Eggs are periodically replaced with cottage cheese. As a result, the mass turns out slightly damp, but it should not stick to your hands. Also, the ingredients of the mixture can be crushed sunflower seeds and fish food.

Birds of any age should not be fed with fatty and salty foods and sweets.

Special additives and water

The mineral elements needed by birds can be obtained from eggshells. It is added to the main feed, crushed in advance. It is also recommended to give them greens, vitamins, mineral feed, and sand.

To avoid dehydration, your bird should always have access to drinking water.

Long-term consumption of water from the city water supply is dangerous to the life and health of the starling. When keeping birds in apartments, it must be filtered or left for up to two days in an open container. The optimal amount of liquid will depend on whether the starlings are moistening the food.

What else to include on the menu

A balanced diet should include proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals. The volume and content of the starling menu depends on several factors:

age of the bird: the chick eats a lot and often, so the weight of food that it eats over two hours is equal to approximately half of its total body weight;
activity mode: birds living in cages will need less food than those flying in spacious enclosures;
place and conditions of detention;
period in the life of a bird: during the growth of feathers, the need for minerals is high, birds require more food during the mating season and caring for the emerging offspring.

In addition to feed mixtures and substitutes, the menu of growing and adult birds must include their natural food: worms, beetles, larvae. Also an important element of their diet are ant eggs, which, if possible, it is advisable to add to the food of all songbirds.

How and when to feed

In your pet's house you need to allocate a place for eating: put a drinking bowl and a feeder, preferably with several compartments: for mash, fruits and vegetables, caterpillars or larvae.

This option is suitable for adult birds feeding on their own. But the starlings will have to be fed by hand. Food is served approximately once an hour on a feather or a match, and for older chicks - on tweezers with blunt tips. The beak of birds is opened very carefully so as not to damage it, since in young birds it is soft. After satiation, they calmly fall asleep.

It often happens that the chick opens its beak itself when it is hungry. Over time, he gets used to being fed by a person and is in no hurry to hide in a secluded place.

Features of home maintenance

Before you bring a starling into your home, you need to take care of creating suitable living conditions for it. You will need an aviary or a spacious cage where the pet can fly from place to place. There you will need to attach perches, a feeder, a drinking bowl and a bathing container.

Birds that come to people when they are very young must be taken care of almost around the clock. Only the hatched bird is deprived of plumage and protection from the ambient temperature. In the nest, the chick is warmed by the parents, but outside the natural habitat, people must take care of this issue.

The temperature in the place where the chicks are kept should be about 41°C, and they should not overheat or freeze. You can create optimal conditions using a thermostat. If the chick is already at least partially covered with feathers and the room is warm, then heating is not needed for its survival.

What else you need to know about the feeding process

Birds often refuse to accept food from humans and open their beaks. You can gently knock on the wall of the cage or enclosure in which they are kept. Whistling or saying your pet's name is also an effective technique.

These steps must be repeated at each feeding, so that the starlings will understand when it is time to eat. If efforts at the initial stage do not bring success, then the food is carefully pushed into the beak.

If chicks are kept at home, and not adults or fledglings, then it is important that over time they learn to peck food on their own. To do this, feed is gradually started to be given using tweezers, lowering everything lower. You can also put a live worm or caterpillar so that the starling can contrive and catch its prey.

Starlings are birds known for their mockingbird talent. Experienced connoisseurs of birds can raise good “singers” of other species next to them, resulting in a well-coordinated “choir”. Starling chicks raised in captivity are well tamed and trust the person who replaced their parents.

It often happens that starling chicks fall into human hands. This is due to the fact that babies can fall out of the nest at any time, since it does not provide a degree of protection. In addition, the cubs are quite timid and begin to back away when they feel danger approaching. And given that the chicks cannot fly yet, they have no opportunity to rise back. On the ground they are as vulnerable as possible - most predators will now be able to feast on the small chicks. In this case, the person becomes the only savior, and if he tries, he can raise a healthy starling.

The most important mistake when caring for a baby is feeding him bread. The fact is that only adults can digest it; starling chicks are not yet able to do this. You can soak a soft roll in milk and give it to the baby, but you should not do this often. In addition, babies should not eat salty foods, as salt is toxic to them. In fact, the diet should be as close as possible to what birds would have in nature: small insects, worms, larvae, caterpillars, and sometimes meat (both raw and cooked). Starlings eat fish with appetite, the main thing is that it is not salted. It should be remembered that you will still have to obtain natural food, because the baby will not grow well on meat or fish alone. Remember that you have a baby in your hands who also feeds on grains. Therefore, it is necessary to add various cereal plants to the diet. However, you should not abuse this food, because it is too hard and the baby’s body will not be able to cope with a large portion.

Once you have decided on the starling, you should figure out the dosage. Since the bird in question is quite large, it should have enough food. The total weight of food that starling chicks must eat within two hours should be equal to half the weight of the baby. If the chick eats everything you prepared for it in one go, then you are lucky - you are dealing with a sufficiently old individual, which increases the chick's chances of survival. If he does not eat everything at once, then you need to feed the bird in several approaches.

Plus, we should not forget that starling chicks must quench their thirst, otherwise they will die from dehydration. As a rule, babies do not immediately begin to eat and drink from human hands. In order to prove to them your good intentions, you need to lightly press on the sides of the beak, opening it, then the fledgling will feel that it is satisfying its hunger and thirst, and subsequently will not resist feeding. Babies are usually given water using a pipette.

If you are interested in finding out what breed your starling chick belongs to, the photo will help you. The fact is that the species of this bird can be determined at a young age. Chicks differ significantly from each other. In addition, information from books can help you determine the sex and age of the foundling. In any case, if you find a chick that is not able to feed itself, help it, because you have every opportunity to do this!