Native to Europe and Northern Africa, the European Starling was introduced to the United States in 1890 as part of a plan to introduce all the birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare to the United States. The American Acclimatization Society introduced approximately one hundred birds to New York’s Central Park. They are now found throughout the United States, southern Canada and into Mexico. It has also established in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa.

European Starlings have the ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitats and eat a wide variety of food, mostly insects and fruit. In agricultural areas it will eat grains, seeds, dig up sprouts, and eat livestock feed. When eating livestock feed they also end up contaminating the food and water sources. They form large flocks and have been known to short powerlines with their feces. There may be as many as 200 million Starlings in the United States.

European Starlings are about six inches long with a pointed bill that is yellow, but becomes dark in the fall. Their feathers are black with white spots and green and purple iridescence. They typically produce two broods a year of four to seven young each and are cavity nesting. Adults usually use a woodpecker cavity or natural cavity in a tree, utility pole or fence post. This means Starlings compete with native birds for nesting sites. European Starlings are also very noisy birds.

European Starlings can also carry diseases such as transmissible gastroenteritis, blastomycosis, and salmonella, and transmit them to livestock and humans.

Picture from: http://www.naturespicsonline.com/Nature15/_mg_9259a.htm

(From: http://www.state.tn.us/environment/tn_consv/archive/starlings.htm and http://www.mbr-pwrc.usgs.gov/id/framlst/i4930id.html and http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Sturnus_vulgaris.html and http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/eurostarling.shtml)