Zeki is a naughty bird

[Mimsy01]

His new thing is to drop sticks on my coffee cup.

I already have to use a mug with a lid otherwise I get a starling in it. So now in his defiance he grabs any sticks that Foo makes when deconstructing a wooden toy and drops them all on the top of my coffee.

He's still being hand fed, so this is the face we see when we try to eat anything! He wants whatever we eat, or even hold in our hand. Oh pencil, stick it in my mouth! No! Steal it and throw behind the couch then haha.

He's like a messy child. He takes all foot toys, tissues, paper, book pages, mail and throws it all over the house. I have to pin cut up construction paper around to keep him busy with stuff. Otherwise he is fighting me for the computer mouse, the phone, the xbox controller ect. He's the busiest bird I've ever seen.

He will attack my hand if I'm doing anything that is taking away from paying attention to him. He'll pounce it like a cat, peck the heck out of it..and sometimes exhausts himself and just falls asleep there, head under wing mumbling things. Favorite time for a nap, on the hand that is on the mouse or a controller.

Lucky he's a cute little devil.

 

[Newbsi]

What a pretty beak! (I bet that beak hurts when he peaks! lol)

What kind of bird is he?

 

[Mimsy01]

He's a european starling. We call it the pesty bird though.

 

[Newbsi]

When I hear Starling, I think of silence of the lambs. Clarice would have been a great name!!! *sighs* I crack myself up

 

[Williamsong]

Oh, I remember those days, there just so energetic all the time! We used to let ours in the basement for a while and just let him fly all around the basement for like 30'mins, then he would be tired the rest of the day, lol. And if we shook one of our fingers she would always peck at it.

 

[Williamsong]

Just click on the pic for a cute little video of Leela when she was still a baby.

 

[Mimsy01]

Leela is a cutey. Zeki is out from sun rise to sun down, so he gets a lot of exercise, he just does a quick nap and then he's back to terrorizing.

Ya the whole finger wraggling at the starling is a way to start a serious fight. lol They get all tall and fluffed and peck it while complaining. If he's been in enough trouble to get a lot of finger shaking and talked too's he has a little fit. He does this crazy mixture of fly around and run on two legs, while dive bombing us, usually ending with an attack on the dog and an ear getting yanked. Such silly birds.

 

[Mariar]

Sorry to say this but...omg your zeki sounds so fun! Lol.

 

[Taw5106]

No offense but your experience with your starling makes me thing of the first time I discovered black and white magpies in Calgarie Canada. First the weather is cool so I left the window open to let the cool air in while I was sleeping. Second the sun comes up before 5am in the summer. Third, those black and white Devils were showing and screaming before 5am on my window ledge!! They never shut up! They were my alarm for sure. My mental image of your starling is demanding and loud. Oh wait, I just described my GCA, Buddy, lol!!

You are doing an amazing thing with your starling. I love following your progress.

 

[Kyoto]

is it weird that he sounds like Kyo? hahaha she's always into mischief too Maybe he thinks he is a conure!

 

[StephenAndKyleigh]

When I hear Starling, I think of silence of the lambs. Clarice would have been a great name!!! *sighs* I crack myself up

I'm glad my brain wasn't the only one that went there lol

 

[RavensGryf]

I LOVE your Zeki !! He is precious! Who knew they were such little trouble makers? I had no idea.. Wow, sounds way more active and naughty than a lot of parrots... makes my Pois and Pionus look sedate!

Even though they don't bite, I bet the pecks don't feel too good either with that pointy beak lol. Such a personality he has . I don't recall if you've mentioned if he's started talking?

Clarice for a female Starling haha, love it .

 

[RavensGryf]

How old is Zeki, and when will he stop "begging" for food like a baby?

How did you come to get him?

 

[Mimsy01]

over the last week or so Zeki has been making sounds that are not baby sounds and I think are beginnings of him getting some words out. Sounds like mumbling right now. He's only about 11-12 weeks old. He will hopefully be completely weaned by 15 weeks. They are not like birds that start on formula, or have their parents regurgitate for them. They get whole bugs stuffed in from day one by their parents. If you look at you tube you can find some wild ones feeding their new hatched young, it's kinda amazing how big of bugs they stick in those tiny mouths.

He does eat things on his own, however they continue to beg for a long time, I'm guessing it's a bonding to the flock and to learn what is ok to eat. They also would steal from their siblings and anyone else they can and run/fly away with it. Zeki is probably eating 75% of his diet by hand and the rest is a little of his dry food, he loves sprouts and then whatever he steals from Foo or us.

Our neighbor found him on his porch, he brought him to us thinking he may belong to the group that was in our roof. Those guys had flown out several weeks prior, so we don't know where Zeki came from. He was just a bundle of bones and had a severe respiratory infection going. I'm going to guess he jumped early or was taken from his nest early (like a predator) and got separated from his parents. We didn't really think he'd make it over the night, but he had a strong will. It took him a good week to get strong enough to really wobble around initially. The first few days were forced fed and of course we started antibiotics right away. They can't be fed like a parrot or pigeon, by syringe, it will drown them or cause pneumonia. So since he was dehydrated we had to cut up tiny pieces of watery veggies/fruit and feed them to him. It was a pretty interesting experience and he really surprised us with his will to live.

They are a lot different then most parrots. They want to be with you all the time, but they don't like being touched much, especially on the head. That starts a fight. Of course if he's being bad punishment is my holding him and giving head kisses...yuck.

 

[RavensGryf]

This is so interesting, thank you! Are you giving him bugs now?

The internet says they're out here in CA too, but I've never seen a European Starling here. What I thought were Starlings that I see all the time look like pics of Brewer's blackbird.

 

[Mimsy01]

We don't feed insects except as a treat, we can't feed enough variety in captivity to cover their dietary needs. He does eat any spiders or flys that make the mistake of coming in.

We feed a mixture of 1 c dog food (wellness brand), 1/4 c layer pellets or softbill pellets, a little applesauce (or other fruit)0, a little egg. thanks to rehabbers really working on perfecting a diet that doesn't cause issues in starlings we seem to have it down now and don't see some of the common iron store issues and such.

My husband confuses them sometimes with the blackbirds in the wild. Blackbirds have shorter beaks. Starlings have stars, however over the seasons the white stars wear off and they look all iridescent black prior to the next molt. during breeding season their beaks are yellow. They live in huge flocks, but you will find them commingling in flocks with blackbirds, jays, cowbirds, robins ect. They do not live in deep forests or deserts. They prefer places with fields, valleys, lawns ect.

We have one who lives in the tree next to our house that meows all the time. He is the one who owns the nest in our roof during breeding season. My husband got a surprise at the grocery store when he heard what he thought was two ducks and finally spotted it, it was a single starling making the sounds of two ducks.

 

[Doublete]

Starlings are ridiculously good at mimicry. We have them in my barn and I constantly hear my "cats" outside lol.