Oh yeah! Fur such a common pest, they sure are pretty little things.

-sigh- I love starlings... They're such beautiful birds. Do want.

He's definitely the nicer looking of the two that we have-- his stars are out of this world (no pun intended).

And thank you <3

*the sun it burns*

You actually keep them as pets? oO
I myself would love to eradicate them Px

I don't think you meant it that way, but that kinds hurts to hear ;_; This is a member of my family that my boyfriend and I raised together, he means a whole lot to us.

Howard can't help that he was born a pest species. Starlings can be wonderful pets despite being what most people consider a worthless trash species.

I'm not saying their worthless, they're just very aggressive and evasive birds and it is odd that you would own one ;;

I actually watched a ton of talking starling videos (they mimic speech pretty impressively!) and I've always really wanted one. I'm sure they're really neat birds as pets. I havent dealt with them as pests or pets soo I might not have the best opinion but I do think you should watch some talking starling videos and be amazed.

I have watched both in person and videos. They voraciously attack native birds that come into their territory ;;
I guess I'm biased having grown up on a big nature preserve and have seen their damage ><

No one is denying that invasive species are bad. But this is my pet, it's not like I'm actively helping them destroy North America (in fact, that I have him inside means one less out there) and I would appreciate it if you dropped this if you have nothing nice to say about them.

Not really, Howard is aggressive but Spock (the older one) is very sweet. They have individual personalities like any other kind of bird.

We picked these as they fit with our lifestyle and status; they are free to acquire, don't take up a lot of space or make too much noise (we rent apartments), don't bite like a hookbill can and like Xylophagous said they're excellent mimics. You should go check out starling videos on Youtube, you may be surprised at how good a pet they can make!

I enjoy being Facebook friends with Poppybird Dragonetti, who is a lovely starling. He is very talented, and can whistle Mozart! I think they make fine pets.

They allow pet pages now?? I heard they cracked down on a guy's cat page once, buncha party poopers!

Howard wonders if Poppybird is prettier than he is. He's rather vain >.>

I think Poppy's page has been ignored, possibly because it is the Human owner's only page.
And while he is a pretty birdie indeed, and has many videos on YouTube, I'm sure he's no prettier than your handsome fellow!

I looked him up and I think Spock fell in love (she went nuts for Poppy's singing).

solar powered starling engaged
*bork*...*bork*...*boooork*...
fully charged! Please disconnect from the bars.

READY TO PRY, ALL SYSTEMS BORK

ZOOOOOOMMMM

AAAAAAA what a cutie pie!!!

One of my neighbors has a starling named Petey, he can say his name along with some other things, and he loves to fly around and poke his beak into peoples' ears >>

lol, sounds like a starling all right... we get poked in the ear and up the nose all the time xD

Ours can mimic, too! Howard can say his name, say "Hey, Spock" (that's the other bird, and somehow managed to combine both into "Hey, Spoward!"). They both can ring likes phones, mimic my alarm (when it goes off they both start beeping along and it's too cute), and the other one used to sing Castle Vania & Winds of Change (but she kinda forgot the tune and now just makes gibberish noises).

Hehe that's pretty adorable =)

Awww, he's cute! I just rescued a starling on Thursday. I found her in a parking lot unable to fly and brought her to a wildlife rehabber. By the time I got there and they opened the box she tried to fly out and was quite active so they thought maybe she had just been stunned (from hitting a window or something) and would be releasable right away! I was glad for her. :) They were gonna check her out to be sure first.

I didn't know they were legal to own as pets though? I suppose that may depend on state?

I'm surprised they even wanted to help-- for the most part rehabbers want nothing to do with starlings as they are an invasive species.

I'm overly not familiar with American laws (I'm from Canada) but I've heard that they're also legal to keep as pets in the US. I think the rule of thumb is "did it come from this area? Then you can't keep it", which is why you can keep an African pied crow as a pet but not a wild one you find outside. I will warn you that if you do pick up a starling make sure you have a vet lined up-- we didn't and when the older one hurt her foot we had to call a bajillion places until we found one that was even willing to look at her-- even the wildlife rehabber (mistakenly) told us we were "breaking the law for keeping a wild bird". wat??

Ahah! That does make sense, since they aren't native species that they wouldn't be covered by the same law. I definitely don't have time or space for any more pets right now but its something to keep in mind for researching in the future. :)

The wildlife rehab I've been taking critters to for the past several years is awesome. The people there are really great and actually take time to smile to people who bring in animals, which I know can be tough because I volunteered at one for a while and it so so easy to become very overwhelmed. I think they also have the mindset of "It's here, it needs help, lets do it!"

Your rehabber is much nicer than mine! Can we trade? XD

Ours doesn't like "trash species" (that's the same one that didn't know about invasive birds as pets). We brought them a crow once and they basically went "ew, gross" and put it down immediately. Their help only extends to pretty songbirds :\