This was long before the cresent entrances or even plastic gourds.

Never thought about decoying them thats pretty cool..
Watched them rats more once try get eggs or little ones out of my wren houses..Seen them eat a baby robin once..dirty buggers I used to BB gun them when ever could when I was a kid..Whacked as many as could when worked on the farm too. Before all my old neighbors died off or moved we all airguned them in our yards no worry.. Can't do that anymore to many eye's watching now would get ticketed for discharging weapon in city.

If I was going to properly harvest a few for that fly market.. Do ya think guy have to wait for them to prime up or just shoot away any time

Mac

Warrior, even with the crescent guards, they're still a nuisance. I put up a bird feeder at the lake and the starlings chase away just about every bird while they're on it. I used to shoot some with my .177 pellet gun. But then, one of my great grand kids took a liking to the pellet gun. So, I gave it to him.

Starlings are a pretty smart, cautious bird. It's hard to sneak out of the house to get a shot at them without them getting spooked first.

There's better money in starlings than in muskrats. The best, most colorful skins are from birds in breeding plumage, but they aren't that much better. Winter birds are heavier feathered. If someone was interested in trying to sell some starling skins, I'd buy one of the better-quality skins off eBay to see how they are handled, particularly the wings. Because starlings are not native to North America, they are not protected and there are no federal restrictions on selling them.
FYI, there is money to be made in legal fly tiers markets for waterfowl, especially wood ducks and green winged teal; most upland birds, especially Hungarian partridge and certain quail species; squirrel skins and tails; and a large variety of other furs. Look up "Light Hendrickson" and "Tup's Indispensable" to read about some weird furs used in fly tying.
If you inherited grandpa's pre-1972 polar bear rug, you're sitting on a gold mine. $15-20 a square inch.

I have watched starlings land on the outside of my tree swallow nest boxes and reach in and grab the fledglings by the neck and fling them out to the ground. Plus the fact that I lose 1000's of dollars every year in fruit losses I just hate starlings.

There was a pilot program here in Oregon to reduce overwintering starling #'s. They set up large crawdad like traps near feedlots and caught whole flocks at a time. Apparently once a few starlings go in they act as decoys to bring in the rest and then can't get out.

4 and 20 blackbirds baked in a pie! I wouldnt eat them! We give them to ferral cats coons or opossums in the back yard.
I make starling decoys with cardboard and paint them black(silhouettes) We shoot them with airguns.Also bait them up with dry dog food amongst the decoy spread.Fe

The baby was home sick today. SO while she took a nap, I decided to have some fun. Shot 21 while the baby was sleeping. There were 5 more that I couldn't recover, they went in the lagoon.

We shoot a fair number of them when they migrate through here in October and November. They come later every year. I tie flies but have never used starling feathers. But Akroper is right about wood duck, teal flank, Hungarian partridge and the urine stained fox fur. A lot of old polar bear rugs and mounts have hair with broken tips but if not it is valuable.

Good luck on the starlings and I like your decoy work.

Pete

Funny old world Few more nest boxes I have ready to go out.



Round here ~ where they're native ~ they eat shed tons of Leatherjackets. Leatherjackets, of course, eat grass roots.

I used to kill 1000's of them in Pa. on the farm.
They would fly in the barn and make a mess of the glass pipe line used for milking the cows.
I rigged up a lever in the upper part of the barn that closed ALL windows and doors before going in.
I covered one of the wood hay wagons with netting and we would push it up to the largest door and open it about 6' and the birds flew out in to the wagon.
I would clime in with a tennis racket and have at it.
My daughter (6) and son (4) would help some times.

The milk inspector was so impressed he told others on his route about our setup.

What's a leatherjacket?

Heard this story in an English Lit class many years ago in my undergraduate program of how/why starlings were introduced into America. Here ya go:

https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27055030

The dead ones make great decoys when propped up. Many hours of fun have been provided by them. We had 37 propped up by the time we were done one afternoon with the .22's.

I have to try that

Larvae of what we call a Crane Fly (Some call them 'Daddy Long Legs') Don't know if ye have them? Looks like a mosquito on steroids. Perfectly harmless in that form.

Larvae though are long, black, nasty looking insects that spend their formative time eating the roots out of the pasture grass. Starlings feed their chicks virtually exclusively on Leatherjackets and, round here, that's appreciated by the small farmers.