[rec.birds] Starling birth control?

dough@iscuva.ISCS.COM (Doug Hockin) (07/31/88)

The plastic sides in one of our bird feeders cracked so I replaced them with
2 pieces of glass from an old mirror.  I put the reflective side out just
for fun.

A starling showed up and took over the bird feeder from the other
birds.  It spent hours upon hours posturing, vocalizing, pecking and
kicking at the "other bird" in the mirror.  It would go around to the
other side and do the same thing apparently convinced there was
another starling living in the feeder who was doing the same dance it
was.

It spent a good part of 2 weeks doing this. Did it think it was
an opposite sex bird or one of the same sex?

I eventually felt sorry for the crazy bird and the seeds were gone, so I turned
the glass around so the dark side was out before refilling it and haven't
seen the starling much since.

-- 
Doug Hockin                UUCP:  dough@iscuva.ISCS.COM
ISC Systems Corporation           (uunet!iscuva!dough)
East 22425 Appleway        Phone: (509) 927-5477
Liberty Lake, WA  99019