nationally their numbers crashed about 15 yrs ago but they are increasing now due to the extra food we, humans, put out. We regularly get 20+ in the garden and they are noisy and messy. Many do migrate to Africa and come back in the spring to breed.

I agree that there are plenty about. We have two large families regularly visit the feeder, make a lot of noise and are greedy!

Well, there has certainly been a decline round here. I have seen far fewer than in previous years round the bird feeders and only 2 broods of youngsters. They have been in decline largely due to loss of nesting sites (such as under your roof tiles etc!) because people use various devices to make it difficult. Yes, the are noisy and messy and greedy but I wouldn't like to see them in further decline. They are really good at picking the leatherjackets out of your lawn, but there again, a lot of people are paving over their lawns for parking etc so they have trouble finding enough food in built up areas.

Sorry 1.1/4d I didn't mean to imply I didn't like them, they are lovely birds and great to watch. Such gorgeous colours if you catch them in the light, who would think we had purple tinged birds in the UK?
I am sure that the modern practice of paving, shingle etc., is proving hard for them - I thought that the government were trying to dissuade people from hard landscaping. Though there are still so many 'permeable' types that do nothing for wildlife it's sad.

They were all over my garden but I have not seen them for some years

Hi Honeysuckle, it's a pity written remarks can so often be misunderstood! I was just reinforcing my belief that starlings really are in decline like so much of our wildlife but I do agree that they are messy and noisy and demolish the fat balls before the smaller birds get a chance etc.
I think we gardeners all need to do what we can for nature and spread the word among others.
Since I have lived here six out of the twelve houses have had hard drives installed over their front lawns. There was a playing field opposite which the council sold for building so all that big field and the lovely trees round the edge have been lost. There used to be lots of starlings out there in the evening. There are few bees about although I try hard to grow suitable flowers for them. Driving round Sussex this year I have seen only one rabbit feeding on the verges where there used to be dozens. I could go on! But on the positive side, my pond is teeming with baby frogs! In this dry weather I'm not sure what they are going to find to eat though.

There is a major roost about a mile from our house that normally has half a million birds in the winter and we have normally seen great flocks of them coming in from all around. (each flock with a raptor flying above it with an eye to the main chance...) There were fewer last year and this year I only saw one flock. That's a serious decline round here at any rate. And it could well affect the birds of prey too.

That's interesting Stera. What with humans, cats and birds of prey the smaller birds are having a hard time. A sparrowhawk swooped on a woodpigeon in my garden the other day, and the neighbourhood cats sit by my pond watching for baby frogs....and anything else that moves! I'm glad to hear you still have a fair number of starlings though.

I haven't seen any at all in the garden though Pennyfarthing. Its possible that the large flocks we had are mainly overwintering as there is normally a huge influx of immigrant starlings in autumn. I believe lots of them come from Russia. Not this year though.