Lee Su-Younger, Yeoncheon Birds Korea, June 2024
Chestnut-cheeked Starling Agropsar philippensis 쇠찌르레기 is “a uncommon passing hen species in South Korea aside from flocks typically noticed in Jeju Island and a few areas alongside the southern coast”(supply: e-Chicken), which, “breeds in metropolis areas or woods close to homes, ……hatches 8-11 days after laying eggs, and fledges 13∼14 days after hatching”(supply: Naver Encyclopedia – Doopedia). Assessed as Least Concern underneath the IUCN classification of conservation standing, the worldwide inhabitants is assumed to be steady.
The Chestnut-cheeked Starling is a tough species to see in Korea, and there are only a few breeding data. Due to this fact, the document of a breeding pair in Yeoncheon Imjin River Biosphere Reserve from April to June 2024 is essential to doc for the ornithological document.
A male Chestnut-cheeked Starling was first seen on June 22, 2021, and a pair was noticed between Might 1 and June 14, 2022 however no proof of breeding was discovered. A pair and a further feminine, i.e., three people in whole, have been seen from April 24 to June 17, 2024 in the identical space of Seongok-ri, Gunnam-myeon. This 12 months the pair bred in a gap on the high of a utility pole, with the adults repeatedly seen carrying meals to the nest confirming that younger had hatched.
Throughout three years of statement, I used to be capable of see and listen to them with out a lot effort as they used my backyard very regularly and stayed close by. Their calls are distinctive, so as soon as you realize them, then it’s fairly simple to establish them.
| Month | date | particular person | habits | observe |
| 12 months 2021 | ||||
| June | 22 | 1 male | Sat on the high of a mulberry tree in my backyard earlier than flying off to a powerline about 60 m away. | Just one document in 2021. |
| 12 months 2022 | ||||
| Might | 1 | 1 pair | Groomed themselves on the mulberry tree after bathtub. | All the time seemed like they beloved one another a lot! |
| 5 | 1 pair | Groomed themselves on the mulberry tree after bathtub. | ||
| 21 | 1 pair | Loved bathing in a small stream and feeding close by. | ||
| June | 11 | 1 pair | To my eye, the male complained to the feminine and the feminine was sad about it. | |
| 14 | 1 pair | Groomed themselves on a powerline. | The final document in 2022. | |
| 12 months 2024 | ||||
| April | 24 | 1 feminine | Known as on a powerline above my backyard. | The mulberry tree had few branches after intensive trimming. |
| 25 | 1 pair | Known as on a powerline above my backyard. | After this, a pair and a further feminine, i.e., three people, have been regularly seen feeding collectively in my backyard, flying off collectively, and sitting collectively on a powerline. | |
| Might | 3 | 1 pair and 1 feminine | Sat on a excessive powerline aspect by aspect, with a feminine a barely distant from the pair. | It felt like a feminine of the pair watched the opposite feminine however they didn’t appear hostile to one another. |
| 4 | 1 pair | Fed actively in my backyard. The male picked up a dried lengthy grass blade and flew up right into a jujube tree. | The pair or three in whole consistently fed collectively in my backyard from morning to night. Specifically, a feminine(s) helped themselves for a relatively very long time whereas the male was on the guard on a powerline. | |
| 8 | 1 pair | Appeared to have already determined the place to nest. | ||
| 10 | 1 pair and 1 feminine | The pair peeped into the opening and guarded on the entrance. | ||
| 11 | 1 pair and 1 feminine | Fed in my backyard from early morning. The pair went out and in of the opening, guarded the doorway and stayed close by all day lengthy. | ||
| 20 | 1 pair and 1 feminine | Fed actively in my backyard. The male picked up a bunch of dried leaves (largely dried bamboo leaves in a pot) from the backyard and flew up on a powerline. | After this, they didn’t use my backyard once more. | |
| 28 | 1 pair | Took turns to get into and out of the opening, after which flew off in direction of Gunnam Dam baseball subject space. | After this, the pair or typically three have been regularly seen flying off collectively in direction of the baseball subject space. For sure, they often took one other course. | |
| June | 3 | 1 pair | Sat close to the opening earlier than one in all them was seen carrying meals into the opening although the digital camera didn’t work nicely. | |
| 7 | 1 pair | Took turns to get into the opening with flying bugs of their payments and out of the opening. | The flying bugs they have been carrying to the nest have been large. | |
| 10 | 1 pair | Took turns to get into the opening with flying bugs of their payments and out of the opening. The male went into the opening with meals and carried a dropping out. | ||
| 14 | 1 pair | Took turns to enter the opening with a bunch of flying bugs of their payments. The feminine acquired into the opening with meals and out of the opening with a dropping. | ||
| 16 | 1 male | Sat on one other low powerline with meals in his invoice, bushes on the foot of a hill. | The starling household has not been seen since. Over-1-hour’s statement revealed the opening was empty. It was assumed that they fledged within the morning. | |
| 17 | 1 feminine | Peeped into the opening and flew off in direction of the baseball subject space early within the morning. | She was assumed to the unpaired feminine and has not been seen since. | |
When reviewing three years’ data, there’s a chance that Chestnut-cheeked Starling (s) stayed for a while in 2021 however I couldn’t establish them as a result of I used to be only a starting birder and didn’t have a great digital camera at the moment.
I acquired the impression that Chestnut-cheeked Starlings don’t appear too shy. They have a tendency to remain longer on a powerline or a department. They’d focus on feeding themselves within the grass subject with out flushing off when a automotive typically handed by.
However when a human being got here nearer, they typically flushed off the bottom. When a feminine(s) fed in my backyard, the male was normally on the guard on a powerline. If one thing got here up, he referred to as loudly. They have been cautious of a cat greater than of a automotive or a human being. When the male noticed a cat even at a protracted distance, he referred to as sharply to make a feminine(s) to fly as much as a tree or to return collectively to the nest.
I might take a more in-depth take a look at them this 12 months. That’s as a result of they normally fed in my backyard. The unpaired feminine alone, or the pair, or all of three collectively fed themselves in my backyard. There’s one factor to notice: throughout nearly one month from April 24 and 25, my backyard was their favourite desk from morning to night. However they by no means got here again to this desk after Might 21. As an alternative, I noticed them shuttle from the nest to a different locations.
I assume that they started sitting on eggs round then. In my backyard, a feminine(s) normally fed for a comparatively very long time. However the male was simply on the guard on a powerline. That made me marvel “When does he feed himself?” He fed only for a shorter time than a feminine did.
I spotted one factor a lot later: in my backyard, a feminine(s???) ate largely land snails whose shell diameter is 1 cm or so. My backyard doesn’t appear like a vegetable backyard or like a flower backyard. No crops or magnificent flowers develop on this small space. As an alternative, I don’t develop goal crops, and simply let the native crops develop and bloom. We have now not used chemical compounds within the backyard for the previous 6 years and the backyard now helps many worms and snails.
I assume that the feminine Chestnut-cheeked Starling wanted to get high quality protein (and minerals?) earlier than laying eggs, so she fed voraciously on the numerous snails in my backyard. That is perhaps why one of many feminine(s) fed far more actively than the male. Additionally, this is perhaps what they by no means returned to my backyard as soon as they have been incubating eggs or when feeding chicks, throughout which era they flew in direction of large bushes or woodland to catch flying bugs.
There’s another statement I want to add. After they started to fly off from a powerline to a feeding space, or vice versa, the feminine normally began first and the male adopted instantly after her, like her bodyguard. Repeatedly I noticed them do that. No less than to a human observer’s eye, the male’s take care of the feminine was very particular.
It’s sure that the pair of Chestnut-cheeked Starlings bred efficiently this summer time. However I couldn’t perceive why all of them disappeared instantly after they fledged. Dr. Nial Moores let me know starlings have a tendency to maneuver away from breeding areas actually rapidly. Following his recommendation, I attempted to seek out them within the close by Imjin River space however failed. I’ve not seen or heard them since.
Lastly, I share just a few photographs as proof. As a reminder, Birds Korea has a tenet to not take photographs of or to not share photographs of eggs or chicks in a nest. It is because photographing a nest provides a lot stress to the birds and sometimes leads to giving up the nest or breeding failure. The place the pair nested this 12 months is a gap on the high of a utility pole close to homes within the foot of a hill. It was about 150 meters away from the statement level. I used a Nikon P1000 digital camera with a zoom lens.
[Additional Note: Park Jin Young’s doctoral thesis written in 2002 traces a handful of mid-summer records in the Seoul area, and reports that breeding in the ROK was first confirmed in 1989 (in Hwagak-dong, Seoul). More recently (in 2015), 3-4 pairs were found nesting in Suncheon by Birds Korean Matt Poll. There are no known breeding records in the DPRK)].
