Advice please; we have a flock of maybe 50+ starlings roosting in a high, mixed hedge; they’re creating mess and chasing out the resident various birds who normally nest there.
I need a non-lethal means of discouraging them, please. Any ideas..?
At the moment I’m throwing handfuls of wee windfall applets at them, which only works briefly. Sometimes..

Lovely starlings, don’t see the problem, their population has reduced markedly since the seventies. I suggest appreciating them.

You should introduce a scheme where they are transported forcibly to an unpleasant, potentially dangerous hedge in the next town in order to discourage them from roosting near you.

Starlings are ace. You’re lucky to have them.

Starlings are ace. You’re lucky to have them.

+1

And the resident birds are tits. 😀

I love Starlings.
Seeing a huge murmuration like I did a couple of years ago is truly something of wonder.

Lucky you. Stop chucking stuff at them.

We’ve had up to 25 younglings in our garden, feasting on the leftover hedgehog food each morning. It’s been interesting seeing them going from needing to be fed by adults, then all the changes in plumage and shape over the past couple of months.

Noisy things though, they do enjoy a squabble.

“Noisy things though, they do enjoy a squabble.”

A bit like the Singletrack Forum then!

starlings roosting in a high, mixed hedge; they’re creating mess

What sort of a mess can they cause to a high mixed hedge?

chasing out the resident various birds who normally nest there

Iz it coz dey iz black?

Starlings are ace embrace them.

My garden is full of starlings, sparrows and jackdaws it a bloody cacophony of sound.

Very good. There are thousands of the things around here, despite the bird flu decimating the numbers of most other species. They’re carrying the flu about too, distributing it among other groups and species.
Next, have you seen the amount of guano that they dump into the garden & the hedge..? It’s a big hedge and there should be room for everyone. However, there simply isn’t enough space and the nesting smaller birds are all moving away as they find the squabbling terrors too discouraging.
Starlings are rats with wings. Even the visiting sparrow hawks seem a bit wary of them.

Starlings are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Even if the birds are causing damage to property or other problems such as noise or odour they cannot be killed. Failure to comply with the 1981 Act can result in a fine of £5,000, a custodial sentence of 6 months, or both.

All wild birds, their eggs and nests are protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981; under this Act birds cannot be taken or killed, nor their eggs or nests (when in use or being built) be taken or destroyed except under licence.

An “individual” licence is granted by DEFRA to approved, named individuals, to tackle a specific problem, within a specific period of time, in an agreed manner. DEFRA assess applications on a case by case basis. Without a licence it is illegal to kill starlings.

I’d suggest that throwing fruit at birds is an attempt to kill them..

You should definitely take back control of your hedges, and your borders.

Starlings used to be very common in our garden. Something of a rarity now but lots of goldfinches, tits of various types, house sparrows and dunnocks. And, of course the woodpigeons that in return for clearing up the seeds that the messy finches drop do humongous craps everywhere. Should I start throwing things at them so the starlings come back?
Starlings are very intelligent and good mimics, perhaps you could teach them a different language or two ready for Rwanda?
Seriously, I think you’re lucky!

Starlings are ace embrace them.

Aye,we had about 20-30 of them last summer ,they were fun to watch and didn’t stay more than a few weeks.

You should definitely take back control of your hedges, and your borders

🤣👍

Idle, feel free to suggest whatever you like. Meantime I’m more interested in constructive suggestions to help deal with a real problem. Oh wait, this is Singletrack….

Just make sure you remove the squirrel trap before lighting the fire

WCA: good thinking. Take a flamethrower to the hedge, that’ll shift ’em..

I do quite like the idea though of exporting the problem. Maybe Idle would like to come and trap those that have no visas and arrange special flights to shunt the problem away onto someone else at huge expense..?

Meantime I’m more interested in constructive suggestions to help deal with a real problem

MAybe if you come up with a real problem you’ll get helpful replies?

If you collect the droppings and bag them they’ll be worth a lot of money for fertiliser with the price of oil as it is.
There, a constructive answer!

Starlings are NOT ace 😕

Everything else is ok on the feeders, even the acrobatic magpie and the flaming squirrel(who ate the squirrel proof feeder) but the starlings are like MPs at the expenses trough, all in there, fighting, squabbling, food getting kicked and thrown everywhere and in a few seconds everything is gone.

So far I have the bits, remote control, linear actuator, battery and solar panel with controller, once the workmen are out of the garden it’s automatic feeder time. That’ll show them.

My previous squirter (remote control, battery, car windscreen washer kit) did work but kept running out of water and battery.

Josh, if you’d seen the starlings ripping apart newly hatched nestlings of tits, sparrows and chaffinches, you’d maybe take a different view. Starlings are classic omnivores and opportunists, they’ll find ways to consume most things smaller than they are.

Can i swop your starlings for the magpies that nest outside my bedroom window…just along from the pigeons. Yes, they’re a pain at 4am, that’s why I bought some good ear plugs.

Discourage them and something else will move in. As for chasing out resident birds – afraid that’s an avian problem, not yours.
The sparrow gang in our garden have seen off the previous blue tit residents, but hey ho, you’ll find dominate species will often rotate/move on.

See it as good fortune and you’ll stop worrying about it.

Sounds like nature taking its course. The answer is to protect and encourage their natural predators, something that this country fails dismally at.

Starlings are classic omnivores and opportunists, they’ll find ways to consume most things smaller than they are.

And yet they have managed to live side by side for centuries.

Sounds like nature taking its course. The answer is to protect and encourage their natural predators, something that this country fails dismally at.

Yes. We are the natural predators but are prevented from leaving a few cans of petrol at the base of the tree and firing flaming arrows at roosting time***, by

Starlings are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Even if the birds are causing damage to property or other problems such as noise or odour they cannot be killed. Failure to comply with the 1981 Act can result in a fine of £5,000, a custodial sentence of 6 months, or both

***This is not my real opinion and only posted here for trolling effect

WCA: Like.

May I suggest that wca and the op get jobs on a dodgy sporting estate, where the owners will let them slaughter wildlife to suit their twisted perspective.

Bizarre thread. They’re native, wild birds. Leave them alone.

This is not my real opinion and only posted here for trolling effect

you’re fooling no one 😬

Is this another parody thread like the famous “my neighbour is encroaching on my allotment” one. It must be, surely.

Illegal and horrible to disturb them

Leave them alo e please. Their numbers are in steep decline

Leave them alo e please

Yes, they may only be annoying because of itchy skin.

Great pic Kayak, looks like a kestrel. OP, get a pet one. It’d probably keep them away.

@tjagain – you’ve dropped an “n” somewhere, better go back for it!

@Bruce, did you not notice the “non-lethal” in the original post..?
Anyway, never let the truth of a situation get in the way of a good trolling exercise and some quality self-righteous indignity.

I like wildlife and suggest you just leave nature to take its course. I have never noticed the starlings in our garden being aggressive to other birds.
Just write them a note send them round to us. All wildlife can just get on with being what they are. We don’t get to choose what creatures are acceptable and what isn’t.

Think yourself lucky they’re not bloody Jackdaws ugh