In May of 1998 Doodah was captured by some children who put him in a bucket and began hauling him around their neighborhood and poking him with sticks, etc. He was rescued by two of our grandchildren who took him to Grandma and told her to fix him. They also gave him his name.
Doodah had maggots in his ears and various cuts, bruises and broken toes. The maggots were removed and he was treated for his wounds then fed and put in a nest in a warm box to die.
Next morning he woke up begging for food. Each morning he had grown and was still screaming for food. We had raised birds before but I was our first Starling so we began searching for information on the Internet.
Except for a few pages of Govt. surveys and other worthless stuff there was nothing about Pet Starlings so after a few months of searching we came across a story by Nicholas Faibian who had attempted to raise a baby Starling. When we went back to read it a second time there was a letter from Judi with a Starling named Woodstock. We wrote to Nicholas and obtained Judi's email address and while we were bragging on our babies a third letter appeared on Nicholas's page from Janie, Biggie Bird's mom. The rest is history.
We made Doodah a web page and message board and in that first year we heard from over 400 people who were owned by Starlings.
Doodah, Biggie Bird and Woodstock were the first pet Starlings on the net and we've seen many excellent Starling sites since that time educating the masses about these wonderful birds.
There have been many Starlings and other birds raised and released since Doodah came into our lives. All were special in their own way but none as special as he. He was our daily companion for over ten and a half years.
He appeared in numerous web sites worldwide and was featured on a book on research by Popko Wiersma. The research was carried out at the Zoological Laboratory of the University of Groningen. Haren, The Netherlands. Popko found Doodah on line and thought he was the best looking Starling he had seen ( He was right ) and asked permission to place Doodah on the cover.
Doodah's main purpose in life was to keep his people happy and he excelled in this endeavor.
