A Pair Of Starlings

European Starling Pair

It seems that in the last little while I've gotten much better at getting photos of birds. Part of the reason for this is that I've worked very hard at increasing my skill level of spotting them in the trees, and getting clear pictures of them. The other part is that there are just so many of them right now.

The birds you see above are a pair of European starlings. I've shown starlings to you before, but I've never given you a pair of them, I think. These appear to be a mated pair. One is most likely male, and that would make the other the female of the two. There is only one question I have though. How do we tell them apart?

Female Starling?

The first thing I want to say is that was very cruel of me to leave you with that question as if I would provide you with an answer when you get down here. The fact is that I'm not sure I have the answer of which is male and which is female, but I'm going to try. Let's just see what I do have.

A male starling is less spotted on its underside than a female. They have less spots closest to the ground. As far as I know, males also have thicker throat feathers that they stick out for display purposes. I may be wrong that only the males have this, but let's go with that here. Now we'll make a guess as to which is male, and which is female.

Male Starling?

As you can see, I have labeled the last two pictures as female and male starlings. The picture at the top shows both of them. The one on the left has more spots, so I suspect that is the female. The one on the right seems to have less spots, therefore it appears to be the male starling.

The suspected male also appears to have a little bit more of a puffed up appearance around the neck, which also seemingly fits the description. This is my first attempt at trying to determine the sex of these birds, so I may be completely wrong. But I think I have logical evidence that points to me being right about this.

Here they are enjoying each other's company. They seemed oblivious to my presence. And why not? I was hiding behind a tree that wasn't really very close to them anyway. Starlings are a very common bird, but new information about them brings out something new and interesting. Which is male? Which is female? I made my guess with the best of my current knowledge.

What do you think? Are there any birders here who might know a little more about them? What about the rest of you? Does my theory seem to make sense, or do you think there might be a better one? Tell me your thoughts and opinions. Also, just to lighten the mood, what do you think of my cool starling pictures?