...and it's amazing what they will do to get some food.
These are not tame Starling birds, but they are not scared to take chances.
The red-winged starling (Onychognathus morio) is a bird of the starling family Sturnidae native to eastern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape in South Africa. An omnivorous, generalist species, it prefers cliffs and mountainous areas for nesting, and has moved into cities and towns due to similarity to its original habitat.
In rural areas, red-winged starlings are often spotted perching on livestock and game, such as cattle, klipspringers and giraffes, a trait shared by the pale-winged starling, and may take insects and ectoparasites such as ticks, much in the manner of oxpeckers.
The red-winged starling is territorial, aggressive and intolerant when nesting, and will attack other species, including domestic animals and humans. When not breeding, red-winged starlings are highly gregarious and will associate with other members of their species in large flocks.
This one below came up to us to see if we had food on the table, but it had no luck, as we only had coffee.
Somehow, the starlings got food somewhere and look how brave the little Cape Sparrow was by nicking a piece and then scattering.
Ah! So there was a youngster, and that piece of biscuit was way too big for it.
The mom sat looking if the youngster could break it up, but no go.
So the mom called the dad, and she started to break the food into bite sized pieces for the youngster to eat.
Then the dad proceeded to feed the youngster.
In the meantime, the mom started to eat her piece.
Have you ever seen a starling's tongue?
And that was it, as we had to leave. At times we have great fun sitting at the open air coffee shops, and there are some classy ones in our area. The locals also like to meet and chat with friends and family at the shops, but sadly a few are very scared of the starlings. The next time that my wife has a biscuit in her hand with a starling also on her hand, I will show you a picture. The birds are not dangerous, as all that they want is to feed their youngsters.
Such is the life of the starlings.
I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.
Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.
Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.
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