(_Sturnus vulgaris_)
_Length_--8 to 9 inches. Weight about equals that of robin,
but the starling, with its short, drooping tail, is chunkier
in appearance.
_Male_--Iridescent black with glints of purple, green, and
blue. On back the black feathers, with iridescence of green,
and bronze, are tipped with brown, as are some of the tail and
wing feathers. In autumn and early winter feathers of sides of
head, breast, flanks and underparts are tipped with white,
giving a gray, mottled appearance. During the winter most of
the white tips on breast and underparts wear off. Until the
first moult in late summer the young birds are a dark
olive-brown in color, with white or whitish throat. These
differences in plumage at different seasons and different ages
make starlings hard to identify. Red-winged blackbirds and
grackles are often mistaken for them. From early spring till
mid-June, starling's rather long, sharp bill is yellow. Later
in summer it darkens. No other black bird of ours has this
yellow bill at any season.
_Female_--Similar in appearance.
_Range_--Massachusetts to Maryland. Not common beyond 100
miles inland. (Native of northern Europe and Asia.)
_Migrations_--Permanent resident, but flocks show some
tendency to drift southward in winter.
This newcomer to our shores is by no means so black as he has been
painted. Like many other European immigrants he landed at or near
Castle Garden, New York City, and his descendants have not cared to
wander very far from this vicinity, preferring regions with a pretty
numerous human population. The starlings have increased so fast in
this limited region since their first permanent settlement in Central
Park about 1890 that farmers and suburban dwellers have feared that
they might become as undesirable citizens as some other Europeans--the
brown rat, the house mouse, and the English sparrow. But a very
thorough investigation conducted by the United States Bureau of
Biological Survey (Bulletin No. 868, 1921) is most reassuring in its
results.
Let us first state the case for the prosecution: (1) the starling must
plead guilty to a fondness for cultivated cherries; (2) he is often a
persecutor of native birds, like the bluebird and flicker; (3) his
roosts, where he sometimes congregates in thousands in the autumn, are
apt to become public nuisances, offensive alike to the eye, the nose
and the ear.
But these offences are not so very serious after all. He does not eat
so many cherries as our old friend the robin, though his depredations
are more conspicuous, for whereas the robins in ones and twos will
pilfer steadily from many trees for many days without attracting
notice, a crowd of starlings is occasionally observed to descend _en
masse_ upon a single tree and strip it in a few hours. Naturally such
high-handed procedure is observed by many and deeply resented by the
owner of the tree, who suffers the steady but less spectacular raids
of the robins without serious disquiet.
Less can be said in defense of the starling's scandalous treatment of
some native birds. "Unrelenting perseverance dominates the starling's
activities when engaged in a controversy over a nesting site. More of
its battles are won by dogged persistence in annoying its victim than
by bold aggression, and its irritating tactics are sometimes carried
to such a point that it seems almost as if the bird were actuated
more by a morbid pleasure of annoying its neighbors than by any
necessity arising from a scarcity of nesting sites....
"In contests with the flicker the starling frequently makes up in
numbers what disadvantage it may have in size. Typical of such combats
was the one observed on May 9, at Hartford, Conn., where a group of
starlings and a flicker were in controversy over a newly excavated
nest. The number of starlings varied, but as many as 6 were noted at
one time. Attention was first attracted to the dispute by a number of
starlings in close proximity to the hole and by the sounds of a tussle
within. Presently a flicker came out dragging a starling after him.
The starling continued the battle outside long enough to allow one of
its comrades to slip into the nest. Of course the flicker had to
repeat the entire performance. He did this for about half an hour,
when he gave up, leaving the starlings in possession of the nest....
"Economically considered, the starling is the superior of either the
flicker, the robin, or the English sparrow, three of the species with
which it comes in contact in its breeding operations. The eggs and
young of bluebirds and wrens may be protected by the use of nest boxes
with circular openings 1-1/2 inches or less in diameter. This leaves
the purple martin the only species readily subject to attack by the
starling, whose economic worth may be considered greater than that of
the latter, but in no case was the disturbance of a well-established
colony of martins noted."
As for the nuisance of a big established roost of starlings, it may be
abated by nightly salvos of Roman candles or blank cartridges,
continued for a week or at most ten days.
So much for the starling in his aspect as an undesirable citizen.
Government investigators, by a long-continued study, have discovered
that his good deeds far outnumber his misdemeanors. Primarily he feeds
on noxious insects and useless wild fruits. Small truck gardens and
individual cherry trees may be occasionally raided by large flocks
with disastrous results in a small way. But on the whole he is a
useful frequenter of our door-yards who pays his way by destroying
hosts of cut-worms and equally noxious insects. "A thorough
consideration of the evidence at hand indicates that, based on food
habits, the adult starling is the economic superior of the robin,
catbird, flicker, red-winged blackbird, or grackle." Need more be said
for him?