The starling can be a tricky one to photograph at Croome. In towns and cities they can be very tame, and feed from garden feeders, but at Croome starlings tend to be quite rural. They fly in small flocks and gather in treetops, or in the winter, gather in very large, mobile flocks and feed in the fields and meadows (as shown in the bottom photo). You can often hear their chattering (whistles and buzzes) as they seem to be all talking to each other at once.
Easy to identify by their black plumage with metallic sheen, they have fantastic little white 'stars' all over. Their stars are most striking in the winter, and gradually wear out during the year, so they end up plain black in the summer.
The one below seen at the end of October and its stars are so bright its head is almost white. It also has a very black beak. This is likely to be a continental bird, as they start arriving in the autumn.
