Size: The common starling is 19–23 cm long, with a wingspan of 31–44 cm and a weight of 58–101 g. Vocalisations: The common starling is a noisy bird. Its song consists of a wide variety of both melodic and mechanical-sounding noises as part of a ritual succession of sounds. Each bird has its own repertoire with more proficient birds having a range of up to 35 variable song types and as many as 14 types of clicks.

Habitat: Common starlings prefer urban or suburban areas, reedbeds, grassy areas such as farmland, grazing pastures, playing fields, golf courses, and airfields where short grass makes foraging easy. They occasionally inhabit open forests and woodlands and are sometimes found in shrubby areas. These birds are also found in coastal areas, where they nest and roost on cliffs and forage amongst the seaweed.

Behaviour: Common starlings are highly gregarious birds, especially in autumn and winter when huge, noisy flocks may form near roosts. When in a flock, starlings take off almost simultaneously, wheel and turn in unison, form a compact mass, or trail off into a wispy stream, bunch up again, and land in a coordinated fashion. Common starlings are omnivores. Their food range includes spiders, crane flies, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damsel flies, grasshoppers, earwigs, lacewings, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps and ants. These birds will also feed on earthworms, snails, small amphibians, lizards, grains, seeds, fruits, nectar, and food waste if the opportunity arises. Common starlings are both monogamous and polygynous; although broods are generally brought up by one male and one female, occasionally the pair may have an extra helper. Nests may be in any type of hole, common locations include inside hollowed trees, buildings, tree stumps, and man-made nest boxes. Nests are typically made out of straw, dry grass, and twigs with an inner lining made up of feathers, wool, and soft leaves. The female lays 4-5 eggs that are ovoid in shape and pale blue or occasionally white, and they commonly have a glossy appearance. In Latvia, there are 50,000 -250,000 couples.

Interesting facts: One pair of common starlings consumes about 6 kg of insects per year.

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