Keep Calm and Bird On: Invasive Species Spotlight
“If you don’t look, you don’t see. You have to go and look.”
-Edith Andrews
The European Starling is likely the most common “invasive” bird we have on Nantucket, but not necessarily the most injurious. It is currently declining.
There were several unsuccessful attempts by European colonists to introduce Starlings to North America. But they didn’t survive until 1890-91, when Eugene Scheiffelin’s acclimatization society imported and released all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s plays, including about 100 Starlings, in New York City’s Central Park.
Despite their lowly place in the cast list—limited to a single line, spoken by Hotspur in Henry IV—Starlings were the only ones to thrive, breeding across the U.S. by 1920. They’re now estimated at around 200 million.
Their harm consists in out-competing native cavity-nesters for breeding sites, voracious appetite in agricultural areas, and roosting in messy swarms over water supplies. Although a group is referred to as “a murmuration” their extreme chattiness might better be called a cacophony. And it’s better not to park underneath. But some of their harm has been mitigated by the introduction of nest boxes and Bluebird trails.
They have many endearing qualities, however, and not just baked in pie. Once sold as cage birds in Europe, Mozart kept one as a beloved and musical pet. As mimics they can pick up human words, beyond just Hotspur’s cry of “Mortimer!” They are also used subjects for research into flight mechanics, sensory perception, and endocrinology. So, as invaders go, they could be worse.
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