Historical Context

In 1890, a man named Eugene Schieffelin brought the European Starlings to the United States of America as part of a plan to introduce every type of bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to the United States (Gup 1990). By releasing 60 starlings in 1890 in Central Part and 40 more in 1891, Schieffelin brought about the start of a century-long conflict that the country still grapples with today (Gup 1990). Although initially attracting little notice due to their small population, the adaptable starlings quickly reproduced and expanded across the continent, covering most, if not all, of North America by the mid 20^thcentury (Ehrlich et al. 1988). Ironically, the starlings' population in England, Shakespeare’s homeland, has declined greatly in recent years, as seen in Figure 1. This could be due to the fact that starlings have natural predators in England, where they evolved, as opposed to the United States where they were able to strive and quickly reproduce due to the lack of natural predators. In addition, the variety of their diets, aggressive nest-finding habits, early season breeding behavior, and large colonies (see Figure 2) all boosted the starling’ rise to dominance in North America. 

Figure 1. (Baillie et al. 2010) Shows an 85% decrease in starling population from 1966-2009. 

Figure 2.  (Holmes 2006) Shows a huge number of starlings travelling together in a colony.

Control efforts have been unsuccessful in curbing the massive expansion of the starling population. The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food webpage describes the struggle, saying: “In the 1960’s in California over 9 million starlings were killed with no long term effect on the population. In another control attempt, one million were killed by spraying detergent on a major winter roost (the detergent destroys the insulating ability of the bird’s feathers). Again there was no long term effect on the local population and there was a rapid recovery in numbers at the roost” (Carter 2005). These controls are very expensive and sometimes dangerous to the nearby ecosystems. Today, there is an estimated 200,000,000 invasive starlings in North America that need to be dealt with (Carter 2005).

Works Cited:

Baillie, S.R., Marchant, J.H., Leech, D.I., Renwick, A.R., Joys, A.C., Noble, D.G., Barimore, C., Conway, G.J., Downie, I.S., Risely, K. & Robinson, R.A. (2010) Breeding Birds in the Wider Countryside: their conservation status 2010. BTO Research Report No. 565. British Trust for Ornithology.  (Date Accessed: May 17, 2013.) http://www.bto.org/birdtrends

Carter, N. (2005) Why European Starlings Are A Perennial Problem: History And Biology Of European Starlings In North America. Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. (Date of Access: May 12, 2014.)http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/tenderfr/tf0905a6. html.

Ehrlich, P.R., Dobkin, D.S., & Wheye, D. (1988) European Starlings. (Date Accessed: May 12, 2013)http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/European_Starl ings.html.

Gup, T. (1990) 100 Years of the Starling. New York Times. (May 12, 2013)http://www.nytimes.com/1990/09/01/opinion/100-years-of-the-s starling.html?src=pm.

Holmes, J.  (2006) The flock of starlings acting as a swarm.  Geograph.  (Date of Access: May 17, 2013.)  http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/124593