Two starling things.
We don't get them in my neck of the woods although a few hundred metres away there are roosts and nests (in the summer
) yet tonight a gang of European starlings (about thirty ... not the numbers we've been talking of in the thread) flew up to our house and spent at least twenty minutes doing the up, down, round and back flights .... have never seen this before - is it because spring is arriving?
This asks the questions of why they do this - it has nothing to do with feeding or mating (or does it?). Is it practice for change of behaviour when spring springs? So, finally, my question: there are lots of other sociable starling species (family Sturnidae) - over the world, do any or all (or none) of these species go in for this behaviour?