Starlings

[Davyo]

Over heard a couple of kids today talking about Starlings( they refered to them as 'stinkers').Now when i was a young lad in the northeast of england this bird was always known as a stinker just like a lapwing was called a 'peewit'(for obvious reasons as this is the sound a lapwing makes).But i am puzzled to why in the north east a starling is called a 'STINKER'.Do you call it this in other parts of the UK?

Can anybody shed any light on why it gets the nick name stinker please.

Edited February 23, 2013 by Davyo

[Uncle Albert]

Maybe some perve goes round sniffing their behinds? :lol:

[kernel gadaffi]

I've heard of them being called, "Stinkers", some even call them "Stenchers", a common name for them is, "Greater Spotted Mountain Splashfart".

[Vince Green]

We used to shoot them with air rifles and sell their wings to a company called Vennards in Croydon. They do stink even when newly dead.

[BerettaEELL]

You obviously know that Starlings are now a protected species due to massive decline in numbers. BTw they do indeed stink when they are dead, not that I have smelled them when alive.

[kent]

I shot 1000's of them when they were legal, droppings were the issue. Regret that now the numbers are so much lower. I never found them more smelly as birds but their droppings are a hazard and do stink especially when you break the crust. Used to keep them as Ferret food frozen separately then placed in large black bin bags, they are actually very attractive birds up close in good light. I am often asked to shoot them in cow sheds today but its never going to happen, one place has tried all sorts even flying BOP, the droppings foul the feed and shutting the area off to them just creates lung issues in the cows through poor ventilation. I think they are still on the list North of the border?

[Teal]

They are still on the list in Northern Ireland

[kdubya]

I used to like watching the aerial displays of the black clouds of stinkers when I was a kid incredible to watch, pity they killed everything in the local park lake via their droppings whilst at roost.

 

KW

[The Ghost]

We used to call them Starkies when I was a kid in Cumbria.

About 40 years ago we would all sit in the pine trees waiting for them....when they came in we would bang pots and pans.

This was organised by the local council as we had thousands of them and they were seen as a menace.

This is the pines.

[jason kaye]

When we were kids they were known as "Sheps" don't know why though , and when I call them sheps I get some funny looks from the kids.

[Zulu]

Yes Sh

When we were kids they were known as "Sheps" don't know why though , and when I call them sheps I get some funny looks from the kids.

 

Same here , as a youngster was brought up in Barnsley and we called them Sheps too .

[delburt0]

called "flying rats" in barnsley...

[Blackpowder]

Stiggies or stinkers here, huge flocks could kill off woods where they roosted.

 

Blackpowder

[vulpicide]

They were called stuckies in Glasgow and they are off the licence in Scotland as I predicted because the people shooting them for farmers did Not bother to put in any returns of numbers shot for fouling barns etc. So no shoot returns = not a pest = off the licence. That was why the antis suggest these things like returns of numbers shot are put on the licence cos they know most people can't be bothered sending them in.

.

[FOXHUNTER1]

Always been called stinkers in Durham , dont know why? Not in decline up here as still loads about , see them everyday.

[Lister]

I've nerer heard them called anything but starling. Just a few years ago we used to get loads of them in the garden. They would scare off the smaller birds from our feeders and would often fight each other over the best positions. They used to get frightened off by crows, rooks or magpies. The neighbours got fed up with all the droppinngs and asked us to stop puting out feeders.

I now hardly see any birds in the garden, a handfull of sparrows, a few starlings a couple of blackbirds, collared doves and a lone robin. It seems to be corvids are the only bird in any numbers. The most interesting birds I've seen in the garden are a sparrow hawk and a greater spotted woodpecker that landed on a metal clothes line post and pecked it.