Where's Mom with lunch?

Below is a series of photographs of a Mom Starling feeding it's young starling. The dark plumage and yellow bill of the Mom is considered breeding plumage. The non-breeding plumage and dark bill of the adult Starling is shown near the end of the page (spotted).

source - http://www.birds.cornell.edu obtained Feb. 21, 2007

English Starling; also known as European Starling, Common Starling. This species is native to Europe. It was introduced to America in 1890 as part of a plan to have all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare in the U.S. All of the English Starlings in North America came from 100 birds released in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. Today, their population is estimated at over 200 million birds from Alaska to Florida to Northern Mexico.

The English Starling competes with native species of birds and destroys crops.

At left, the spotted non-breeding plummage and dark bill (Winter season) of the Starling. This photo was taken in January, 2007. Starling means "little star".

-source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, obtained Feb. 21, 2007 and http://www.birds.cornell.edu obtained Feb. 21, 2007.