Calling Starlings

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I have been close to pulling the trigger on a call also. Foxpro does offer some starling mp3s to put on it but they are all starling in distress type sounds. I think it would attract them but in my experience when I have wounded them they mostly just hover and are on high alert. Foxpro told me that you can put any mp3 that you can find on their call. I think a peaceful, feeding or starling jamboree call would work well. Somebody just has to do it and tell the rest of us inquiring minds!
 
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This is all great feed back. I've been working with starling decoys and have found that decoys on the ground don't work well because of lack of movement. However decoy on a tree limb or wire works very well. However a call of some type is required to take it to the next level. I agree that a distress call may scare them more than attract them. A flock of starlings in a roost sound very calm and inviting to other birds. The challenge is where do we get that recording???
 
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I have done well with starling decoys set on the ground in areas where they are feeding like cut hay fields or lawns. I have had my best luck combining elevated decoys (on a fence or hay bail) with some on the ground in feeding positions. I have shot starlings a few of times that got stuck up in dead trees and that worked great to attract them until the wind blew them down. I even wired 4 starling decoys on a stick and cast a weight with a fishing rod over a high branch in a dead tree then pulled up the stick. It worked, but not as well as I thought it should have. 
I hunt them obsessively. Great fun.
 
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Ok, so I finally took the plunge and picked up a FoxPro Firestorm. It wasn't too easy to get it loaded up with the starling sounds off of the FoxPro site, but its finally done thanks to our IT guy lol... anyway, ill give the call a try this weekend along with the decoys and see what happens... I wish there were more Starling sound options. A recording of a flock sitting / feeding would be ideal...
 
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"Strietwise"Any suggestions on the best time of year yo hunt them? Just after the young are born and when there is snow on the ground seem to be ideal.
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I can get into them all year where I live in Montana. 

In the winter I go to a cattle feedlot where they snuggle up to the cows to stay warm and eat the feed. I usually get 20-50 on a outing there.

In the spring it is great fun to go hide around large nesting trees. In a good outing, I might get 15. 

After the young leave the nest, feeding areas such as cut hay fields are good for decoying. I look around until I find areas where they are feeding then find a hide and set up decoys. On my best shoots I have got close to 50 or so.

This year I found a roosting area in some thick willows along a creek that was very nice shooting for me. I would set up near some large dead trees in the area for a couple hours in the evening and get 10-20 or so. I had some good, although brief, action in mornings there also.

Lately the weather has been cruddy and the starlings have been feeding in town. I bait the grackles and redwing blackbirds to my yard with black sunflower seed and starlings just have to come into the live decoys also.

Most of them migrate somewhere to the south, I assume, but plenty stick around for winter fun. 

I am excited to hear how Davidt does with the Foxpro!
 
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Hey Miguel that sounds like some great fun. Sounds like to have them figured out pretty good. By the way, I'm in Grimsby Ontario Canada, I'm just kind of getting started with my intense pursuit of the starlings. I have had some success at the local dairy farms. It's really fun but I've only been out once since I got my decoys. I've painted them up nice now and I have them rigged up to look more realistic. Plus, yes, I have the call now. I cant wait to try it out. I'll try to get out this weekend and report back to everyone next week. 
 
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I got out this weekend with the foxpro and the decoys. The call definitely works and brings birds in close. If I was shooting a shotgun it would have been a massacre. But getting them to land was difficult. I had a few land but not many. I have lots to learn about the proper setup and calling techniques. I managed to get a few that landed on nearby trees and farm equipment but only 2 in the decoys. I think winter shooting around the barns will be much more successful as food is always available in the barns.... I'll try again next weekend... 
 
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