Despite this, its huge global population is not thought to be declining significantly, so the common starling is classified as being of least concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The species has declined in numbers in parts of northern and western Europe since the 1980s due to fewer grassland invertebrates being available as food for growing chicks.
Introduced populations in particular have been subjected to a range of controls, including culling, but these have had limited success, except in preventing the colonisation of Western Australia. Common starlings may also be a nuisance through the noise and mess caused by their large urban roosts. Large flocks typical of this species can be beneficial to agriculture by controlling invertebrate pests however, starlings can also be pests themselves when they feed on fruit and sprouting crops.
It is hunted by various mammals and birds of prey, and is host to a range of external and internal parasites. This species is omnivorous, taking a wide range of invertebrates, as well as seeds and fruit. There are normally one or two breeding attempts each year. These take two weeks to hatch and the young remain in the nest for another three weeks. The common starling builds an untidy nest in a natural or artificial cavity in which four or five glossy, pale blue eggs are laid. This bird is resident in western and southern Europe and southwestern Asia, while northeastern populations migrate south and west in the winter within the breeding range and also further south to Iberia and North Africa. The common starling has about 12 subspecies breeding in open habitats across its native range in temperate Europe and across the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and it has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji. Its gift for mimicry has been noted in literature including the Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal roosts and other gregarious situations, with an unmusical but varied song. The legs are pink and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer young birds have browner plumage than the adults.
It is about 20 cm (8 in) long and has glossy black plumage with a metallic sheen, which is speckled with white at some times of year. And maybe by then I'll get the competitive streak back.The common starling or European starling ( Sturnus vulgaris), also known simply as the starling in Great Britain and Ireland, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. So maybe by the end of this series, I'll have a couple more half marathons under my belt. Normally, I would get a babysitter, but they tend to be few and far between on Sundays at 7am.īut hopefully, I'll be able to run the next one. I tend to draw the short straw when it comes to racing in our household.), and there was nobody to watch the kids. I ran the first 5K with one of my friends, who, by-the-way, got a P.R.! Whoop! Unfortunately, during the second 5K, Bryant was out of town (at his own race. (Why I do this to myself every year, I don't know.)
I did, however, register for the Road Race Series again. For the first time (in my life, really) I haven't been uber-competitive in pushing trying for new PRs and longer distances. I've run a couple 5K's here and there with some new running friends and my sister, and they've been fun. (In my case, only after you get worse, of course.) Therefore, my base mileage and pace per mile has suffered since.
I'm pretty sure the full marathon training did me in. So after Mother Nature's debacle that screwed up the whole 2013 St Jude Marathon Weekend, I've been pretty lackadaisical when it comes to running.īut haven't really set any goals or trained hard for anything.