They aren’t a protected species, no. This one was raised by my neighbour as the mother laid the nest inside the engine of a work vehicle he was using, so he took the flock home and began feeding them, the rest didn’t survive but this spicy little guy did. For some reason he really loved car rides so we’d take him in the car in the morning to drop me off at work. And the thing with starlings that’s funny is that you will get to know their particular voice and be able to pick it out of a tree of many chirping birds. He would yell outside in the tree for me to come outside.