The relative importance of invertebrates and barley in the diet of starlings sturnus vulgaris

Abstract

Starlings cause agricultural damage in winter by eating barley which they take from cattle food. However, barley represents an inadequate food for Starlings and, at least in southern England, their preferred grassland invertebrate food is rarely limiting. This enigma was investigated in an experiment on captive Starlings: This showed that they needed over half of their daily food intake to consist of invertebrates to maintain weight but, as long as this level of animal food was obtained, the birds could utilize barley, probably as an easily gathered high-energy food source. © 1986 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.