Common Starling

The Common Starling is an abundant, highly social songbird known for its shimmering, iridescent plumage and its spectacular large-scale flocking displays known as murmurations. Though it often appears simply black at a distance, its feathers reveal rich green and purple iridescence up close.

Starlings are widespread across Europe and have been introduced to other continents, thriving in a huge range of habitats from cities to farmland.

A Starling feather is often recognized by the presence of small pale spots near the tip, a feature most pronounced on fresh feathers grown after the autumn molt, combined with an underlying iridescent green-purple sheen.

Color and iridescence

• Base color is glossy black, with strong green and purple iridescence visible in good light, especially on the head, throat, and wing covert feathers.

Spotting pattern

• Fresh feathers, especially those grown after the autumn molt, show pale buff or white tips creating a spangled, spotted appearance across the body.
• Spotting wears away through the winter and spring as feather tips abrade, so breeding-season feathers may show little or no spotting.

Size and shape

• Feathers are small to medium, with fairly pointed wing feathers reflecting the Starling's fast, direct flight.

Confusion species

The combination of small size, iridescent black base color, and pale spotting is distinctive among common garden and farmland birds; Blackbird feathers lack both the iridescence and the spotting.

In fresh autumn and winter plumage, Starlings are heavily spotted with pale buff or white tips over a glossy black, iridescent body. Through winter and into spring these pale tips gradually wear away, leaving breeding adults looking sleeker and almost unspotted with strong green-purple iridescence.

Males and females look similar, though subtle differences exist in eye and bill base coloring during the breeding season. Juveniles are markedly different, appearing plain greyish-brown without iridescence or spotting until their first molt in late summer.

Starlings undergo a complete molt after breeding, typically in mid- to late summer, producing the heavily spotted fresh plumage seen through autumn and winter.

Starlings occupy an extremely broad range of habitats, including towns, farmland, grassland, and woodland edge, often nesting in cavities in buildings, trees, or nest boxes. They are highly adaptable and gregarious.

The species is native across most of Europe and temperate Asia and has been introduced successfully to North America, Australia, and other regions. Many populations are resident, though some northern birds migrate south for winter.

Starlings feed on a wide variety of invertebrates, fruit, and grain, often foraging in flocks on open ground with a characteristic probing bill action. They are famous for forming enormous, swirling winter flocks called murmurations.

They nest in cavities, and their song is a varied, chattering mix of whistles, clicks, and mimicry of other birds and even mechanical sounds.

A small, glossy black feather with pale spotting near the tip, especially in autumn or winter, is a reliable sign of Common Starling.