Worlds luckiest starling or not (short video)

[LDP]

I got set up on this starling and lazed him and the distance was 73 yds and there was a breeze that was left to right . So I looked at my drop calculator for 73 yds and got the cross hairs lined up where they needed to be and held off for what I figured the wind speed was and squeezed off the shot. When I shot I could here the pellet strike something but I couldnt tell what it was until I watched the video and slowed it down. Long story short this starling was extremely lucky that I held about 1/4" to far for the wind and just barely missed a solid head shot and grazing his beak instead. Now this would be very similar to the other posts we have seen where a shot wasnt solid and made contact. I dont know how much damage the hit to the beak caused and the bird flew off so it could be one of those cases that it may starve to death because it cannot eat and it may not have any serious damage I dont know. Some people are going to say hey its a starling who cares and some will say its unnecessary suffering. I am in the camp that I dont want to cause an animal to starve to death. This is also the reason you will see people say I dont take shots beyond 35 yds even with highly accurate pcp rifles. All it takes is a very slight error in wind judgment or hold over to have this type of hit. How do I feel about this shot? Im not sure its a mixed feeling mainly because I dont know what damage the pellet actually did to the starling. In hind sight I should have passed on the shot cause of the wind and distance but I was in a solid prone position and the shot was a low percentage for just wounding the bird based on where I held. I held for a head / high neck shot so if the pellet was slightly low it would be a solid chest / neck hit and if it was slightly high a solid head shot or the pellet would pass over the top. As it goes the pellet went exactly where it should with the only problem being the hold off for wind being ever so slightly to much. So in the real world even low percentage problems do happen. Learn by your mistakes and yes we all make them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qC6sAJSmM98

[454ho]

I just watched a Ted's Holdover video a day or two ago where he had a similar occurrence on a HOSP. Hit the bird square in the beak. It flew up, circled back, landed on the ground and started eating seeds as if nothing had happened. Second shot was on target.

A Starling has a tough beak and they use it as a weapon. I'm not familiar with the rifle or pellet you use, but I would guess the energy at 73 yards may not be enough to severely damage it.

Edit to add link to above referenced video -
skip ahead to 6:35 to see the sparrow hit.