Cape Town Daily Photo

Allow me to introduce you to the Red-winged Starling. Perhaps its just my over-active imagination, but doesn’t this shadowy creature look perfectly evil? Click on the image to see the larger view – doesn’t it’s beak and those talons look like they’ve been forged in the fires of Mordor?

Granted, I’m interpreting the bird’s nature based on external appearance (which is just silly, really) but it is true that Red-winged Starlings aren’t push-overs – they can be quite fierce, actually. These birds are well-known to attack pets and humans wandering too close to their nests… which are unfortunately often located in the roofs of our homes – uncomfortable close to where we normally do wonder.

Unfortunately, Starlings are often considered pests (and are dealt with as such) since Starlings like to nest in roofs and tend to spread lice and other creepy-crawlies. It’s sad actually – I kinda like those devilishly-dark-sometimes-fierce birds.