# Beaks turning yellow



## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Hi everyone, 
I want to share this about my Starlings. None of my Starlings beaks ever changed and three of mine are going to be 3 years old in May and June, then I have three that are going to be two, and one going to be a year old. Wow! I can't believe my first 3 are going on three, time has really passed by. Well anyway the last few weeks I noticed two of my guys beaks where changing, but their not the only ones because 3 of my other starlings beaks are also changing to. I never thought I would see my Starlings with yellow beaks, but low and behold they are turning yellow. Also as I was looking at their beaks they have blue at the base of their beaks. I'm sort of sad because my Littlefeathers and Ravvie who I thought were girls are really boys , they have the blue. So here I thought I had 3 girls and 4 boys turn out that so far I have 6 boys, but not sure about Baby because the beak has changed a little only. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she is a she. 

I also want to let y'all know that my Speccy is talking clear saying ring that bell Chirp, and he's only 10 months old. What's really cute is Speccy also talks to me when I talk to him, but not sure what he is saying, but he's mumbling something. 
Well anyway! here are pictures of what the color of the beaks look like now. If you look at the beaks you will see the blue at the base of their beaks which means they are definitely boys. 




























Since I've taken this picture of Speccy and Baby, Baby's beak has really changed now.


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## Lovebirds (Sep 6, 2002)

They look SOOOO sweet........next time I'm in Charlotte, can I give you a call and come to see you and your babies? One of our clubs in Charlotte usually has a YB auction sometime in March. We usually go.............so maybe in Mid March sometime???


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Renee, they are sweet . Let me know when you are coming in March, I'm usually home. I'll make sure no one makes plans for me to go anywhere. It will be nice to meet you and I know you'll love my all my babies.


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## Whitefeather (Sep 2, 2002)

Hi Mary Ann,
Your Starlings are beautiful.  
I thought we had some in our backyard, but they don't have the markings that yours do. Apparently they aren't Starlings. 
We do have some cute little birds with bright yellow beaks. I have no idea what they are. Will try to get a picture. I'm sure someone will be able to identify them. 

Thanks for posting your pictures.

Cindy


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

Mary Ann, your Starlings are just lovely and look happy and healthy!  

Hope you get to meet Renee...do keep us updated!


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## Skyeking (Jan 17, 2003)

The Starlings are lovely and look quite intelligent.

CONGRATULATIONS of having (almost) all boys. 
I hope Baby is a girl.

Thanks for sharing them.


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## TAWhatley (Mar 6, 2001)

They are positively gorgeous, Mary Ann!

Terry


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Thank you so much and your welcome.

Cindy, I have a lot of different kinds of birds and my neighbors cat. I'm forever chasing the cat out of the yard, but the fool likes me to much and will come over to me. We told our neighbor they need to keep their cat home at least during the winter because I have feeders up for the birds, so they have food. I'd like to see a picture of the bird, I hope you can get a picture of it. I know starlings beaks are or shortly will be changing to yellow during breeding season. You'll start to see soon wild starlings who don't have the white on the tips of their feathers due wear of being outside. 

Shi, It's their cat food diet  that keeps them healthy. Their raised on a certain cat or dog food mixed with poultry mash, it's the closest to their diet in the wild. They are very happy little guys. I hope I get to meet Renee in March, it would be really great and get show off all my babies to her. Okay! I love showing off my babies. She'll even get to meet my blind pijjie Peawee, and I know she will fall in love with him. I will keep you posted.


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Thank you so much and your welcome Terry and Treesa.

Treesa, I'm hoping Baby is a girl, but I looked at the beak and it looks like a trace of blue at the base of the beak, but I'll be able to tell when the beak changes more. They seem to be very intelligent. I'm going to be funny now, if you think about this, how many birds can figure out how to get coins out of a machine? That's on smart bird. A dear friend of mine who just passed way in between Christmas and New Year's, Terry knows who I'm talking about, has a starling and in the cage the starling has different dishes one for food, one for water, and believe it or not one for money. If you give Smarty a penny, he will take that penny from you go into his cage and put it in his money dish. The funniest thing Smarty did was he flew to me and landed on my arm, my friend put his hand out for Smarty to go back to him and Smarty run up my arm and got as close to me as he could, it was so cute.


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## Lin Hansen (Jan 9, 2004)

Mary Anne,

Thanks for posting the pictures....they are such a pleasure to look at.

Speaking of starlings and coins....I found this link that I think you'll like....

http://www.all-creatures.org/stories/a-starling.html

The starlings sure are some characters!!! Gotta love 'em.

Linda


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Linda, Thank you and your welcome. (LOL) I read about that starling having over $4,000.00 in coins, that's one smart starling. I love my starling and they are characters, it's never a dull moment with them. When they get loud all I say to them is your to loud or quiet it down, they will stop talking, and then my George will come out with thank you or thank you my babies, he's a card. Now if I could only get my pijjies to talk (LOL).


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

That car wash story was a HOOT! I'm STILL laughing!

$4,000???? !!! DARN! I gotta find me a smart Starling!!   ....."Gee, officer, how do I know where all this money came from? No one but us "birds" (brains) here!"


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## Pete Jasinski (Jan 2, 2005)

Oh my goodness, your babies are just delightful Mary Ann! I've always wanted a starling as a friend but it hasn't come to past which I guess is a good thing as the only way I'd take one in is if it were injured. 
Wow, 6 boy starlings, I'm sure the group is a handful  I can only imagine all the prying going around your house, nothing must be safe


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Shi, I wish I could teach mine to do that because I'll never be broke (LOL), but the only problem is they are not like a racing/homing pigeon, they don't find their way back home. I could see trying to explain where all the change came from (LOL). 

Thank you Pete. You know there are times when we need homes for babies in NJ and NY because the finder can't keep them. I've had people email me and ask if I could take their starling, but I no longer live in NY. I have traveled as far as NJ to pick up a starling when I lived in NY, and I also travel to pick up pigeons too.

If your interested in adopting a starling let me know. 

(LOL) Yes! there is a lot of pecking and prying around my house, even on me, but I don't mind it at all. What is really nice is that my boys get along with each other. I really love these little guys of mine and glad I have them in my life. I'm glad six of my starlings beaks changed because I don't have to have DNA's done now. Hopefully my 7th starling's beak will change so I know if she is a she or a he.


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## Reti (Jul 20, 2003)

They are so sweet and adorable. I never met a starling but I know they are very smart and cute.
Love their pics.

Reti


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## Pete Jasinski (Jan 2, 2005)

I'll be sure to let you know if I can ever add a Starling to my life  They are such special lil guys and gals, I have them at the top of my fav bird list with pidgies.
Here's a fella in the tree outside my window.


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## mr squeaks (Apr 14, 2005)

NICE SHOT, Pete! That's a beautiful bird!

A MALE, right, Mary Ann?


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Pete, They are beautiful. I love that picture. My wallpaper on my comupter is starlings. Did you just take that picture? If you notice the stars are wore off feathers, but come late summer and they moult, the new feathers will have the stars.

Shi, That's definitely a male, the base of beak has the blue . Females will have pink at the base of the beak.


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## Pigeonpal2002 (Jul 27, 2002)

Hi Mary Ann, 

Congratulations on your groups' beaks turning yellow, lol  I know that this is very exciting news for you. I didn't know about the beak and that they could be sexed by the blue or pink at the base. Those couldn't be more appropriate colours to tell the sexes apart and that is very interesting! 

I certainly hope that Baby turns out to be a girl, but on the other hand if she does, then won't all the boys fight for her attention? lol  

Great pictures of your lovely starlings


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## littlestar (May 11, 2005)

Thank you so much Brad. It is exciting just to have their beaks turn yellow. There is also another way sex them and that's with the eye's. It's like 97% accurate. The females will have lighter brown eye's but in the middle of the brown is light colored ring, almost like a white or cream color, and the males eye's are a darker brown and on the outside of the brown is a gray colored ring. Here's a picture of Speccy's eye, you will see it has the the gray ring on the outside of the brown.












> I certainly hope that Baby turns out to be a girl, but on the other hand if she does, then won't all the boys fight for her attention? lol


That's the thing with imprinting on humans, they don't know they are birds. Now Speccy on the other hand isn't imprinted being he lived in wild until he was around three and half to four weeks old , so he know his species. He would be my one and only that would actually try to mate with her, and if Baby turns out to be a female, she still wont have anything to with him because she doesn't relate to him as being her kind. Imprinting takes place during the first two weeks of their life, any bird found after that the only thing that will happen is they only become tame. Pigeons are so different because my Littleone was raised in the wild until he was 5 to 6 weeks old and thinks Wiggles and me are his mates. He will actually do his little mating thing to me to not just Wiggles. But anyway it would be so nice to have at least one girl in the bunch, but even if she turns out to be a he, I'll love Baby just as much.


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