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Landlord Studies Beak Color in Relationship To Sexing Starlings
I have observed from this personal study that breeding males, such as the one in the photo, (right) will have a upper and lower bill color of light blue. This color will vary from dark gray, to gray, to blue gray, to light blue (breeding time). The female on the left will have a bill color of light pink. This color will also vary from off white, to flesh tone, to light pink. I am not sure the colors will hold true for all twelve months. From my studies at the Purple Martin Tower The Purple Martin Tower / Wonder of the PM World where I caught an additional 98 starlings this year, I had eight males for every female. It will be interesting to see if the European Starling numbers drop for me in 2003. Dennis Zwerenz / Hampshire, IL
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I trapped
ten pairs of European Starlings this past year. Each of the
birds of all ten pairs had beaks that were either pink or blue.
In the one pair that I eliminated at the Elmer Krushinski colony
in Appleton, WI, the story repeated with one starling having
a pink beak and the other one having a blue beak.