It was just there and died probably sitting. Death reason: unknown. Starlings are becoming rare in our garden. Some summers ago we had a small colony of three, four couples. This year they are not breeding. In Europe their total number is falling back.
They are wellknown for their complex chants; they manage to embed sounds from the surroundings, even human speech. I remember them from my youth. Thousands of them assembled in the evening to sleep in little wood parts somewhere in the wetlands between Meetkerke and Zuienkerke. The phenomenon is called ,,black sun”: an enormous cloud of starlings swirling around the woods untill they finally drop down and rest.
Bill Oddie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuY9hJ6gKeI&feature=related
Dead starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
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