A Red-winged Starling morning.

I will also show you how and what they eat. They were diving down to a palm tree.

We had to go and refill our empty gas bottle and, on the way back, we stopped at a traffic light. It was not the first time that I saw the starlings flying into a palm tree on the opposite side of the traffic lights, and so, today I decided to stop and to investigate. A high old pine tree stood near the palm tree, and the starlings used it as a launch pad to reach the lower hanging branches loaded with old fruits of the palm tree.

Let's see what Wikipedia has to say about the starlings.

The red-winged starling (Onychognathus morio) is a bird of the starling family Sturnidae native to eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to South Africa. An omnivorous, generalist species, it prefers cliffs and mountainous areas for nesting, and has moved into cities and towns due to similarity to its original habitat.The range runs down eastern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng in South Africa.

This species has a wide habitat tolerance. It may be found in forest, savannah, grassland, wetlands, fynbos, farmlands and commercial plantations, as well as urban centres. It is now common in many urban areas, due to the similarity between the structure of tall buildings and houses as nest sites with the cliffs of its original habitat. It may also nest in residential areas, breeding in roofs and apertures and up house eaves.

Source

I love to see it with open wings, as it clearly shows the red color in its wings.

This one obviously had enough, and it was on its way back to the pine tree.

They know how to avoid the green berries at the left, as it was the black berries at the right that they feasted on.

In the three photos below, you can see how they enjoy the black berries.

Finally, this is what they eat, the two black berries, and they don't touch the two green berries (unripe).

Birds are intelligent, and in here you can see that the starlings know not to eat the green berries. But how do they know is the question? I mean they cannot talk, so no way could their parents tell them that the green berries will make them sick. At least we as human sapiens are told what and what not to eat, by our parents when we were young. We learn how to read and write as youngsters, and we have doctors to see whenever we eat something that's bad for our health.

But in the bird's case the answer is simple. The parents also teach them what to eat from birth. They don't need to learn how to read and write, but rather how to survive and to fly. In the case of survival, they are taught how to hide and to escape the attacks of predators, and even how to find the correct shelter during the stormy days. And yet, the birds are better at raising their young, than many of us as humans. The bird parents will give their lives to protect their children, and some humans throw their children away. I know this, as I was a throw away child. Such is life.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and the story.

Photos by Zac Smith. All-Rights-Reserved.

Camera: Canon PowershotSX70HS Bridge camera.

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