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For cherry tree owners, the star is not very popular
Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) - Bird of the Year 2019
Even though he is not necessarily one of the darlings of the cherry tree owners, the German Nature Conservation Union (NABU), the Bavarian Wildlife Federation (LBV) and the Austrian animal welfare organization BirdLife have named the star "Bird of the Year 2019". Unfortunately, the stock of imitation artists weighing between 75 and 90 grams, like many other bird species, has declined dramatically over the past few decades, so that the star, as a protected species, has now earned its place on the "Red List".
They are at home wherever they find suitable breeding sites, such as tree caves, abandoned nests of other species or at best nest boxes. If you do not have all of this and can not remember those 20 cm long cave breeders, just listen to this fascinating vocal talent on the German bird voice portal.
The animals, which one can not deny a certain ability to socialize with people, are not just cherries, they also like delicious, ripe grapes very much. If the "common thief" were not marked on the photo, it would probably be hard to spot, would it? After a few days the author of this article was not disturbed or even chased away by his appetite, his trust in humanity even went so far that he approached to a few feet to thank the dispensers with a serenade. Out of sheer emotion, a considerable portion of the grape harvest was voluntarily abandoned, so that this fiddle-tipped fellow with his appendix was one of our favorite regular guests.
Stare can also be seen from time to time in the garden
At present, the stock of European starlings is between 23 and 56 million animals. That only seems huge at first glance, because in the last 20 years we have lost about one million of our native star pairs in Germany alone. The reasons for this are not entirely new: The intensive use but also the loss of meadows, fields and pastures cause acute starvation of the starlings, since they hardly find worms and insects. The massive use of agrochemicals is increasingly destroying the food animals, which have an existential significance for many other bird species as well.
Stare were once cruelly expelled
In addition, berry-bearing hedges, as well as nesting sites, are lacking, especially as many older trees were cut down with suitable breeding caves for the animals. During the 1970s, the starlings were even considered a threat to wine crops, blasting their nesting grounds with dynamite or chasing away birds through the massive use of powered airplanes. Nevertheless, Sturnus vulgaris is not only a "wine predator", but also reduces the population of insects that threaten our vegetable and flowerbeds considerably.How garden owners can help
So that the bird of the year is not one of the losers of this century in the near future, a lot can be done with simple means to help actively in the fight for survival of the animals. Near-natural gardening instead of accurately groomed unit green attracts the birds, enriching our lives not only acoustically and visually, but contributes quite considerably to the biological balance in our nature. We should therefore:
We will talk about completely different plant species in our next post and they will certainly not be flown by hungry starlings.