Bird Brains

Over this past little while there have been two Starlings hanging around the feeders.
On the best of days a Starling is a rather odd looking beastie – a comical mix of a woodcock and a porcupine in my mind. Their long yellow beaks a bit freakish next to their dark black, blue and purple feathers … which today stick out like sticks in a bird’s nest. 😉
Today’s lunch time entertainment was the comical antics between the Starlings and the Blue Jays. One Jay was working especially hard to knock loose chunks of suet. The Starlings caught on and took up their posts directly below the suet block. They’d swivel their enormous beaks up to peer at the Jay way above them.
The Jay meantime was becoming frustrated. Every time he’d knock loose a great hunk of good eating … vamoose! It would disappear down the throat of a Starling.
He would race down off the feeder only to find this cheeky little Starling looking well fed and content and no sign of any of the suet chunks anywhere about.
Now really … look at this Starling’s ‘coat’ today! He looks like he got out of bed too late to bother straightening up … and he’s puffed himself up against the cold until he looks like a little ball of spiky fluff – with a dangerously pointed sharp beak!
However, Mr. Bird’s Nest of a hairdo Starling is looking much better fed that the hard working svelte charmer of a Blue Jay!