Tuesday, March 31, 2020
Question ?
Are Starlings known for imitating other birds,
the reason I ask is because I was up in the garden
and heard a Curlew calling and thought wow that's
a good one for over this area, so looked up into the
sky and in the fields at the back of my house and
nothing, I then spotted a Starling on a neighbours
roof singing its head off with guess what? the song
of the Curlew, I kid you not. It was amazing to watch,
with hindsight I should've filmed it on my mobile phone
but I was that gobsmacked I never even thought, it also
did its normal Starling song in between blasts of the Curlew.
4 comments:
A big yes
Starling has a massive vocabulary the ones by me do green woodpecker
I've heard them do curlew which I think is common
Back in 97 one even did green sandpiper on the Isles of Scilly
There used to be one by us did a perfect ringing telephone. Ive had a few doing Curlew calls up at Withins Gap.
Cheers lads
Yes, I had one doing a perfect imitation of a Curlew on the adjacent house to ours in Todmorden some years back. I was intrigued as to whether it is a direct imitation ie the have actually copied a real-life Curlew they've encountered, or whether it is now just passed down the generations like ordinary songs are?
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