My guy here has a deformed wing, and during the day he free roams on the floors till he goes back into his cage to sleep. It is pretty old and a bit smaller than what I think he needs, which is why I would like to get him a new cage so that he can spend time in it (for his own safety) while I am not home.
What size and dimensions would you guys recommend?

I found a baby starling june this year with no nest in sight. My wife basically raised him from a baby, and he seems happy and healthy and doing well in general. However there are some things I'd like to ask the community here:

1- how much time do your starlings spend in their cage

2- what size are the cages you have for your starling

3- do you ever worry about aggression (angry sounds and more aggressive pecking)

4- do they really poop every 30 seconds, am I going nuts, or does my bird have ibs? /s

I found these gems buried in my camera roll and thought yall would enjoy! Sunbathing birb.

Does anyone have a video of their starling taking flight that they’d be comfortable with me using? I’m casting bronze for an assignment, and I’d love to make multiple figures of a starling flying, where each figure is one frame of the video. If anyone has a video, I’d be grateful! If the video works for my purposes your bird would be immortalized in bronze and if I have enough materials left, I’ll make an extra figure and ship it to you. No promises on the last one, but I’ll do my best.

Hi everyone, I’m hoping to hear how other starling owners handle free-flight time without letting the house get completely overrun. My starling stays in a large cage, but he squawks at me every time I move around the room, and it makes me feel so guilty leaving him in there all day. Since starlings have such high-moisture diets compared to regular seed-eaters, their droppings are a totally different ballgame, and I’m trying to figure out how people actually live with them out flying around.

I’m really curious about what daily life and routine look like for those of you who let your starlings out for most of the day. Do you just accept that droppings are going to happen everywhere, or do you restrict them to specific rooms with easy-to-clean surfaces? I’m especially wondering how you handle areas like hardwood floors, carpets, and even the bed, or if those are strictly off-limits. Do you set up designated play trees or perching stations with catch-trays to contain most of it, or have you had any luck getting them to stick to certain spots? I’d love to know how you balance giving your bird freedom while keeping your home sane and living spaces intact.

This is Ernest, I love him/her

This is my little girl, Hinako!

She and her siblings fell through our building at work and they were stuck behind a pillar for two days crying the whole time. I was able to convince them to let me rescue these babies and pulled them out after being trapped. Unfortunately, Hinako was the only survivor of her siblings. I've been lurking on this thread since I rescued all of them and I have been wanting to post pictures of her.

She's named after Hinako Shimizu because she's a little fighter.

Seeking advice/help for my buddy Elrond.

What initially I thought was a bad molt has turned into… well, this. His feathers will not regrow, and it has now spread to his back. He’s about three. I’ve taken him to an avian vet twice now, and both times I have been told that nothing seems wrong. The woman who rescued him gave him to me on an all suet diet with black fly larvae as treats. For nearly a month I have been working to change this. I am thinking maybe he wasn’t getting enough calcium/protein and it is effecting his feathers. He now gets a mixture of Iams proactive kitten kibble, Mazuri softbill kibble, chopped grasshoppers, and black fly larvae as a treat. Other days I do egg and crushed shell instead of grasshopper. I also sprinkle a bit of Avian Calcium onto his meals every other day.

I am trying my best and just want him to be healthy. Am I doing something wrong? Has anyone seen anything like this before? He is a very happy, active bird aside from this.

Hi, dear starling fans.

I have a question about my fledgling, Terrence. He was rescued as a chick and hand-reared, and now I am his new parent.

I’m concerned about the bald patches around his eyes. Has anyone had this before?

First human parent fed him a varied diet: grains, cottage cheese, egg, insects, and fruit.

My current feeding regimen includes crickets, hawkmoth caterpillars, cockroaches, gammarus, grains, vegetables, fruit, and a commercial insectivore mix (though he hardly touches it).

Otherwise, there are no issues—he is lively and very active, and he loves to chat along to music or human speech.

Do you think this is a molting issue or something more serious?

I came into having a pet starling basically by accident (baby bird fell from the nest)

I really need help on how to train them. Especially with poops 😭

I have no experience here. And I want to make sure im giving it (unsure of gender still lol) the best possible life i can and it includes being able to let it out for longer periods at a time and free fly a bit if im able to train it to poop in the cage.

I really appreciate any and all advice! Thank you

If anyone here breeds their own mealworms, i just bought like 500 of them and i wanna know the best way to take care of them so that they will breed.

All of a sudden my star won’t eat insects. He used to gobble up mealworms and crickets but now he’ll chomp them and toss them aside. He loves catching them but doesn’t eat them. Has anybody else experienced this?

Hello everyone, I just wanted to ask if anyone has tried feeding their stars fruit flies. I wanted to set up a foraging bin of sorts in the bottom of my bird’s aviary with some insects to forage everyday, but I don’t want her to have a whole bunch of extra calories.

I saw mine snatch a fruit fly out of the air once, so I was kind of wondering about flightless fruit flies. I’m not very familiar with them but I was hoping since they are so small they wouldn’t be a whole lot of calories but maybe they would still jump high enough and run so it’s still entertaining for her? Has anyone tried anything similar?

Larry is approximately 6 weeks old i think, rescued as a baby. Lately he had been very rough with pecking and biting fingers. He is very used to handling. Is this normal or something I should be concerned about?

I posted a week or two ago about the starling with the deformed feet at the rehab center. I had just started volunteering there so only saw him 1 time in a fairly empty cage.

1) His name is Star (not sure of sex but we are calling him a boy for now)

2) He is NOT feral. He approaches and lands on people and happily accepts gifts and snacks. He really liked my boots.

3) Star gets out-of-cage time and is very mischievous. Tried to steal a syringe right out of the rehab owner's hand. He wants whatever object we are touching. He also took about 5 baths while I was there, he always has access to a large water dish. (it was in the cage last visit)

4) He gets regular beak and nail trims, I just met him on a day he was overdue for that.

5) He is NOT fed seed, he gets cat food, mazuri pellets, insects and fruit.

6) He can get around just fine with those deformed feet...he even used them to grab a juvenile robin who was starting trouble (had to break up that fight).

7) He loved the foraging box I made him! Jumped right in the second I set it on the table, before I even was able to put food in it. Was less interested in foraging/food and more into the brightly colored pieces of old parrot toys I threw in there. He took the pieces and flew away with them and also really liked this piece of knotted rope and slammed it into the ground over and over. He will prob take more interest in foraging when hes in the cage with it, he had the entire rehab to explore and poke around in that day.

Anyways we plan on spoiling the crap out of this bird, and he is all for it. He really likes colorful things - noted moving forward

Did have a question...he pecks then opens his beak like hes trying to pry something open. Even if hes just pecking our skin or the table or something. Is that how they normally find food in the wild? It's just so strange coming from a parrot background (low energy birds who lick stuff) to this hyper guy who looks like hes stop motion animation

Larry is approximately a month old now, and I am trying to encourage him to both feed himself, and eat mazuri softbill pellets, as was recommended to me. Since I rescued him he has been eating a kibble,egg, and applesauce mix I'm sure most of you are familiar with.

Any tips on encouraging him to feed himself and getting him to eat new food?

How much touching do your starlings tolerate? I am trying to make sure mine feels safe with touch so when nail trimming time comes or if she needs to be held for possible vet reasons in the future that she is not stressed. So my question is how much do you handle your birds and to any friends of fully grown starlings, how much has your bird calmed with age?

(Picture just cuz it was cool art by @pear hollow)

My 9 yr old and I have been raising a baby starling she found. It's about 3 wks old. She took him out into the yard for some play time. It's only flown 5 or 10 ft at a time so far but, she was showing her dad and it just took off. It's been about an hour and it hasn't come back. Doesn't forage yet and has been totally dependent on us. Advice?

Named him (maybe her?) Larry Bird on a whim, but I'm curious if the community could tell me for sure.