You have several good points, about characteristic of Starlings. Yeah, they they keep a good distance from people, and fly away at first sight, even when they are in the safety of the flock.
These Starlings were on the ground, in vulnerable position far away from the flock (I saw only 3 of them). They saw me getting closer, but they tried to keep still and blend into environment. I could get get as close as ~ 3 meter, and that's a surprise to me, and against all Starlings-characteristic I knew about.
Those Field fare has always been a blending-bird, but not Starlings. I'm wondering if these rainbow-Starlings are a crossed-species of those 2.
About 10 years ago, I was riding my bike at night past a filbert orchard in late October. There was a strange rustlling noise coming from the trees. I stopped and realized that there was a large flock of Starlings roosting in them. When I walked under a tree, about 1,000 of them would explode into flight. I estimated that there were at least 200,000 of them in the orchard. They would fly in after dark and leave before sunrise. It's said they may range out up to 40 miles a day from their roosts in search of food. We may be irritated by them, but imagine how many insects we'd have all over, if they didn't eat billions of them every day.
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Steve McDonald
http://www.flickr.com/photos/22121562@N00/
http://www.vimeo.com/user458315/videos
, specially the closest one (there was 3 of them looking for food on a hill).
