Sturnus vulgaris
The common starling (Sturnus vulgaris), also known as the European starling or starling common, is a species of passerine bird in the family Sturnidae native to the Palearctic. It is about 20 cm long and has iridescent black plumage, with a purple or green sheen, flecked with white, especially in winter. The legs are reddish, and the bill is black in winter and yellow in summer. Unlike adults, juvenile birds have brown plumage. It is a noisy bird, especially in communal perches and other gregarious situations, and has a varied but unmusical song. He has the ability to imitate the sounds of his environment and even learn them. His talent for vocal imitation has been noted in literary works such as Mabinogion and the works of Pliny the Elder and William Shakespeare.
About a dozen subspecies are recognized as breeding in open habitats in their natural range in Europe and temperate Asia. The species has been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, North America, Argentina, South Africa, and elsewhere. It is sedentary in southern and western Europe and southwestern Asia, while in winter northeastern populations migrate south and west within the breeding range, and even further south towards the Iberian Peninsula and the north of Africa. It builds its nest in a natural or artificial cavity where it lays four or five light blue eggs. These hatch after two weeks, and the young remain in the nest for three weeks. There are usually one or two clutches each year. It is an omnivorous species that feeds on a wide range of invertebrates, and also on seeds and fruits. It is preyed on by various mammals and birds of prey, and is host to a wide variety of external and internal parasites.
Forms large flocks that can be beneficial for agriculture to combat pests, since they consume large amounts of insects and other invertebrates. However, the same starlings can become considered pests, when they kill fruit crops and dig up agricultural shoots. They can also represent a nuisance when the flocks spend the night on urban cables or poles, due to the volume of noise and the excrement they produce. Certain populations, particularly those that were introduced, have been subjected to a series of measures to contain or slow their growth, such as culling, but these measures have met with little success, except in Western Australia. In some parts of northern and western Europe populations have declined since the 1980s due to agricultural changes and the consequent reduction in the number of invertebrates on grasslands, which are important food for developing chicks. Despite this, the world's abundant population is not thought to be declining significantly, and the common starling continues to be classified as Least Concern by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Taxonomy
It was first described in 1758 by Charles Linnaeus in his Systema Naturae under the current binomial name. The words Sturnus and vulgaris (in Latin) correspond to the nouns "starling" and "common" respectively. The Latin word sturnus is derived from an unknown Indo-European root dating back to the 2nd millennium BC.
The starling family is a group whose original distribution – not counting introductions to other continents – was limited to the Old World, with the largest number of species in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. The genus Sturnus is polyphyletic and the relationships between its members are not fully resolved. The closest relative of the common starling is the black starling. The black starling – a non-migratory species – may be the descendant of an ancestral population of S. vulgaris that survived the Ice Age in a refuge on the Iberian Peninsula, and mitochondrial genetic studies suggest that it could be considered a subspecies of the latter. There is greater genetic variation between different populations of the common starling than between the common starling and the black starling. Although remains of S. vulgaris dating to the Middle Pleistocene, the paucity of the fossil record for the family Sturnidae as a whole makes it difficult to resolve the relationships among its members.
Subspecies
There are several subspecies that vary clinally in size and color tone of the adult plumage. Recognition of subspecies varies among taxonomic authorities due to gradual variation in geographic range and extensive intergradation.
| Subspecies | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subspecies | Taxonomic authorities | Distribution | Comments | Illustrations | |
| S. v. vulgaris | Linnaeus, 1758 | Most of Europe, with the exception of the northwest and southeast end; also Iceland and the Canary Islands | The nominal subspecies. |  | |
| S. v. faroensis | Feilden, 1872 | Faroe Islands | Lightly larger than the nominal subspecies, especially the beak and feet. The adult bird plumage has a brighter, darker green light with less stains, even in new plumage. Young birds are black with whitening areas in the chin and abdomen; black-stained throat. |  | |
| S. v. zetlandicus | Hartert, 1918. | Shetland Islands | Coupled to Faroensis but it has an intermediate size between Faroensis and vulgaris. The birds of Fair Isle, San Kilda and those of Foreign Hebrides are intermediate between this subspecies and the nominal and are sometimes classified as vulgaris or zetlandicusdepending on the taxonomic authority. | ||
| S. v. granti | Hartert, 1903 | Azores | Looks like the nominal subspecies, but smaller, especially the feet. Often with strong purple shine in the upper parts. |  | |
| S. v. poltaratskyi | (Finsch, 1878) | From East Bashkortostan east through Urals and Central Siberia, towards Lake Baikal and Western Mongolia | Similar to the nominal subspecies, but usually has a purple shine on the head, green on the back, purple-blue on the flanks, blue green on the upper alar sheds. In flight, the alar and axillary sheds have cinnamon-colored strips; these areas may seem very clear in new plumage. |  | |
| S. v. tauricus | Buturlin, 1904 | From Crimea and East of the Dnieper River east to the Black Sea coast and west to the east of Asia Minor. It is not in the highlands, where it is replaced by purpurascens. | Similar to the nominal subspecies, but undoubtedly with longer wings. It has a green glow on the head, bronze-purple on the body, green bronze on the flanks and the upper alar sheds. Lower plumage is blackish with clear stripes in the sheds. Baby plumage almost without stains. | ||
| S. v. purpurascens | Gould, 1868 | From East Turkey to Tiflis and Lake Sevan; replaces tauricus in the highlands from the East of the Black Sea shore. | Similar to the nominal subspecies, but with longer wings and the green brightness is limited to ear sheds, neck and upper chest. Purple shine in other parts, except in the flanks and the upper alar sheds that have a brighter bronze. Lower part of the dark wings, with fine white stripes in the sheds. | ||
| S. v. caucasicus | Lorenz, 1887 | From the Volga delta including the Eastern Caucasus and adjacent areas. | Green shine on the head and back, purple shine on the neck and belly, more blue on the upper alar sheds. Lower part of wings similar to purpurascens. | ||
| S. v. porphyronotus | (Sharpe, 1888) | West of Central Asia, intergrading with poltaratskyi between Dzungarian Alatau and Altái. | Very similar to tauricus but smaller and completely alopatric, being separated by purpurascens, caucasicus and nobilior. | ||
| S. v. nobilior | (Hume, 1879) | Afghanistan, Southeast Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan to East Iran. | Coupled to purpurascens but smaller and with shorter wings; purple shine in herds of the ears, and fairly reddish brightness at the bottom of the body and top of the wings. | ||
| S. v. humii | (Brooks, 1876) | From Kashmir to Nepal | Small; purple shine is limited to the neck area and sometimes flanks to the sheds of the tail, otherwise green shine. It's sometimes treated under the name indicus given by Hodgson. | ||
| S. v. minor | (Hume, 1873) | Pakistan | Small; green shine is limited to the head and lower part of the belly and back, otherwise purple shine. | ||
Birds of Fair Isle, St. Kilda and the Outer Hebrides are intermediate in size between S. v. zetlandicus and the nominate subspecies, and its classification as a subspecies varies by taxonomic author. Dusky juveniles, typical of these island forms, are occasionally found on mainland Scotland and elsewhere, indicating gene flow from faroensis or zetlandicus, subspecies previously considered to be isolated.
Several other subspecies have been described, but they are not generally considered valid taxa. Most are intergrades that occur in the contact zones between the ranges of different subspecies. Includes S. v. ruthenus Menzbier, 1891 and S. v. jitkowi Buturlin, 1904, which are intergrades between vulgaris and poltaratskyi of western Russia; S. v. graecus Tschusi, 1905 and S. v. balcanicus Buturlin and Harms, 1909, intergraded between vulgaris and tauricus from the southern Balkans to central Ukraine and from Greece to the Bosphorus; and S. v. heinrichi Stresemann, 1928, an intergrade between caucasicus and nobilior in northern Iran. S. v. persepolis Ticehurst, 1928 from southern Iran (Fars Province) is very similar to S. v. vulgaris, and it is not clear if this is a separate resident population, or migrants from south-eastern Europe.
Description
The common starling is 19 to 23 cm long, with a wingspan of 31 to 44 cm and a weight of 58 to 101 g. Among standard measurements, the chord size is 11.8 to 13 0.8 cm, the tail 5.8 to 6.8 cm, the culmen 2.5 to 3.2 cm and the tarsus 2.7 to 3.2 cm. The plumage is iridescent black, with a purple or green sheen, flecked with white, especially in the winter. The underparts of adult males are more spotted than those of adult females at any given time of the year. Males' throat feathers are long and flowing and are used in courtship displays, while those of females are smaller and more pointed. The legs are stout and rosy-red or grey-red in colour. The beak is narrow, conical, with a sharp tip; in winter it is brownish-black, but in summer, females have lemon-yellow bills, while males have yellow bills with a blue-gray base. Molting occurs once a year, in late summer after the breeding season has finished; new feathers are noted for white (breast feathers) or buff (wing and back feathers) tips, producing a mottled appearance. The reduction of spots in the breeding season is obtained mainly by the normal wear of the white tips of the feathers. The plumage of juvenile birds is a gray-brown color that turns into adult plumage upon reaching the first winter, although some juvenile brown plumage is often retained, especially on the head.
Sex can usually be determined by the color of the iris, deep brown in males, grayish brown or gray in females. Sex determination is 97% accurate when estimating the contrast between the iris and the central pupil (always dark), increasing to 98% if the length of the throat feathers is also considered.
Like most other terrestrial starlings, the common starling moves by walking or running, rather than jumping. Its flight is quite firm and direct; Their triangular-shaped wings beat rapidly, and periodically the birds glide for short stretches without losing much height before resuming their wingbeats. When in flocks, the birds take off almost simultaneously, turn and return in unison, form a compact mass or stretched streamer that compacts again, and land in a coordinated manner. During migration, starlings can fly at a speed of up to 60–80 km/h and can cover a total distance of up to 1,000–1,500 km.
Several ground starlings, including those of the genus Sturnus, display skull and muscle adaptations that facilitate probe-feeding. This adaptation – which consists of an enlargement of the transporter muscles responsible for open jaw, and a narrower skull that allows the eye to move forward to look along the bill – is more developed in the common starling (alongside Sturnus unicolor and Sturnus cineraceus). This technique involves inserting the bill into the ground and opening it as a means of finding hidden prey or other food. The common starling has the physical traits that allow it to use this feeding technique, which has undoubtedly contributed to the wide diffusion of this species.
In the Iberian Peninsula, the western Mediterranean, and northwestern Africa, the common starling may be confused with the black starling, its close relative whose plumage, as its name implies, is more uniformly colored. At close range the latter can be seen to have longer throat feathers, a fact particularly noticeable when singing.
Vocalization
The common starling is a noisy bird. Their song is made up of a wide variety of sounds, both melodic and mechanically resonant, which are part of a ritual succession of sounds. The male is the main singer and participates in bouts of singing that can last for more than a minute per episode. Each episode typically includes four song varieties, which follow each other, without a break, in regular order. The episode begins with a series of pure-tone whistles, followed by the main part of the song, a series of variable sequences often incorporating fragments of songs imitated by other bird species and various other sounds of natural or artificial origin. The structure and simplicity of the mimicked sound is of greater importance than the frequency with which it is produced. Each part of the sound is repeated several times before the bird moves on to the next. This variable section is followed by a number of repeated clicks, followed by a final burst of high-frequency singing, again made up of various types. Each bird has its own repertoire, and the most proficient birds can have up to 35 variable song types and up to 14 click types.
As breeding season approaches, males sing constantly, but less frequently after mating. In the presence of a female, the male will sometimes fly to her nest and sing from the entrance, apparently trying to attract the female. Older birds tend to have a larger repertoire than younger birds. Males with the longest song episodes and the largest repertoires tend to be more successful at mating, quickly attracting mates, and have greater reproductive success than the others. Females seem to prefer partners with complex songs, perhaps because this indicates greater experience or longevity. A complex song is also an effective tool in defending a territory and deterring invasion by less experienced males.
Birds also sing outside the breeding season, that is, throughout the year, except for the moulting period. It is mainly the males that sing, although the females are also heard on occasion. The function of the songs outside of the breeding season is not yet well understood. Eleven types of calls have been described, including a flock call, an alarm call, an attack call, a grunt call, and a copulation call. alarm is a harsh cry, and while feeding together common starlings fight incessantly. They chatter while perching and when bathing, producing a substantial noise that can cause irritation to people living nearby. When a flock of common starlings flies in unison, the synchronized movements of the wings produce a distinctive hissing sound that can be heard hundreds of meters away.
Behavior and ecology
The common starling is a very gregarious species, especially in the fall and winter. Although flock sizes are highly variable, very large and noisy flocks may form near roosting sites. These dense concentrations of birds are believed to be a defense against attacks by raptors such as the Peregrine Falcon or Sparrowhawk. In flight, the flocks form a tight spherical formation, expanding and contracting and changing shape frequently, apparently without any of leader. Each bird changes its course and speed as a result of the movement of its nearest neighbors. Very large concentrations can form at roosts, in rare cases up to 1.5 million birds; these can form in urban centers, forests or cane fields, and can cause problems due to the amount of excrement they produce. These can accumulate up to a thickness of 30 cm, and kill trees due to the concentration of chemical products they contain. In smaller amounts, the droppings act as fertilizer; therefore forest managers sometimes try to move roosts from one area of the forest to another to benefit from soil improvement and avoid large toxic deposits.
Large flocks of over a million common starlings can be seen in the spring, before sunset, in southwestern Jutland, Denmark, over the swamps of the municipalities of Tønder and Esbjerg between Tønder and Ribe. They congregate in March until mid-April, when birds nesting in northern Scandinavia start migrating towards their breeding grounds. Their swarming behavior creates complex shapes silhouetted against the sky, a phenomenon known locally as sort sol ("black sun"). Flocks of up to fifty thousand common starlings form in certain areas of the UK Midwinter, just before sunset. These flocks are known locally as murmurations.
Food
The common starling is primarily insectivorous, feeding on both pests and other arthropods. The range of food includes spiders, crabgrass, moths, mayflies, dragonflies, damselflies, grasshoppers, earwigs, neuroptera, caddisflies, flies, beetles, sawflies, bees, wasps, and ants. It consumes both the adult insects and the larvae. It also feeds on earthworms, snails, and small vertebrates such as frogs and lizards. Although the consumption of invertebrates is necessary for successful reproduction, the common starling is omnivorous and can also eat grains, seeds, fruits, nectar, and food scraps, if the opportunity presents itself. Members of the starling family they differ from most birds in that they cannot easily metabolize foods containing high levels of sucrose, although they can handle other fruits such as grapes and cherries. The isolated Azorean subspecies (S. v. granti) feeds on the eggs of the roseate tern, an endangered species. To reduce populations of common starlings, measures such as culling were introduced before roseate terns return to their breeding colonies in the spring.
There are several methods by which Common Starlings obtain their food, but they typically feed close to the ground, catching the insects on or just below the surface. In general, they prefer to forage in very short grasses, and are often found among grazing animals or perched on their backs, where they feed on external parasites of mammals. Large flocks may engage in a practice known as roller-feeding, in which birds at the rear of the flock continually fly to the front, where feeding opportunities are best. The larger the flock, the the closer the birds are to each other while feeding. They often feed in one place for some time, returning to the sites where they were successful.
Four types of foraging behavior were observed in common starlings. "Probing" consisting of repeatedly, and randomly, inserting the bill into the ground until an insect or other prey is found; often accompanied by the opening of the bill into the ground to enlarge the hole. This behavior, first described by Konrad Lorenz and known by the German term zirkeln, is also used to create and widen holes in plastic garbage bags. Perfecting this technique takes time, and because of this the diet of young and inexperienced birds will often contain fewer insects. Another technique, known as hawking, involves catching insects in flight. Lunging is a less common technique in which the bird lunges forward to catch an invertebrate moving along the ground. They capture earthworms by pulling them out of the soil. Common starlings that go through periods without access to food, or experience a reduction in daylight hours available to forage for food, compensate by increasing their body mass from the deposition of fat.
Nesting
Unmated males search for a suitable cavity in which to build their nests to attract single females, often decorating it with ornaments such as flowers and fresh green material, which the female later dismantles, upon accepting it as her mate. The The amount of green material is not important, as long as there is some, but the presence of herbs in the decorative material seems to be important in attracting a mate. The scent of vegetables such as yarrow acts as an olfactory attractant for females.
Males sing during much of the build, and even more so when a female approaches their nest. After copulation, the male and female continue to build the nest together. Nests are built in any type of hole; they are commonly found in hollowed-out trees, buildings, stumps, and artificial nests. S. v. zetlandicus typically nests in crevices and holes in cliffs, a habitat rarely used by the common subspecies. Nests are typically built of straw, dry grass, and twigs, with an inner lining of feathers, wool, and soft leaves. Construction generally takes four to five days and may continue during incubation.
The common starling can be both monogamous and polygamous. Although the chicks are usually raised by a male and a female, occasionally the pair may have extra help. Pairs may be part of a colony, in which case several other nests may occupy the same or nearby trees. Males may mate with a second female while the first is still in the nest, with the second often mating. female tries to expel the nest first, calculating 10% of all deaths related to nest fights. Birds' reproductive success is often lower in the second nest compared to the first.
Reproduction and life expectancy
Breeding takes place during spring and summer. After copulation, the female lays her eggs daily over a period of several days. If she loses an egg during this time, she replaces it with another. It normally lays four or five eggs that are ovoid in shape and light blue, or sometimes white, and commonly have a shiny appearance. The color of the eggs seems to have evolved from the good visibility of blue in low-light environments. Eggs are 26.5–34.5 mm long and 20.0–22.5 mm in maximum diameter.
Incubation lasts thirteen days, although the last egg laid can take 24 hours longer to hatch than the first. Both parents share the responsibility for incubating the eggs, but the female spends more time incubating than the male, and she is the only parent to do it at night when the males return to the communal roost. The young are born blind and naked. They develop fluff within seven days of hatching and can see the nine-day fluff. Once the chicks are able to regulate their body temperatures, about six days after hatching, the parents largely stop removing nest droppings. Before then, dirt could wet the chicks' plumage as well as the nest material, reducing its effectiveness as insulation and increasing the risk of chilling the young. Chicks remain in the nest for three weeks, where they are continuously fed. by both parents. The fledged chicks continue to be fed by their parents for another week or two. A pair may produce up to three clutches per year, often reusing and lining the same nest, though two clutches is typical, or just one north of 48.oN. Most juveniles molt within two months, acquiring their first basic plumage. They obtain their adult plumage the following year. Like other passerines, the parents keep the nest clean and remove fecal sacs from the chicks.
Intraspecific brood parasites are common in common starling nests. "Floating" females (females not mated during the breeding season) in colonies often lay their eggs in another pair's nest. There are also records of fledglings returning to invade their own nests or those of neighbors, dislodging the new clutch. The success rate of chicks reaching the fledging stage and leaving the nest alive is 48% to 79%, although only 20% of hatchlings survive to breeding age; the adult survival rate is closer to 60%. The average life expectancy is about 2 to 3 years, although the longevity record is 22 years and 11 months.
Predators and parasites
Adult Common Starlings are hunted by hawks such as the Common Goshawk and Eurasian Sparrowhawk, and falcons including the peregrine, hawk, and common kestrel. Slower raptors such as the black kite, red kite, common buzzard and the Pacific marsh harrier, tend to prey on young birds that are usually easier to catch. The common myna sometimes dislodges eggs, nestlings, and adult common starlings from their nests, and the little indicator, a parasite It uses the European starling as a host. Nests may be raided by species capable of climbing into them, such as stoats, raccoons, and squirrels, and cats may trap the unwary.
Common starlings are hosts to a variety of parasites. In a study of 300 common starlings in the United States, all were found to have at least one type of parasite; 99% had external parasites, such as fleas, mites, or ticks, and 95% had internal parasites, mostly different types of worms. Blood-sucking species leave their host when it dies, but other external parasites remain in the body. A bird with a deformed beak was infested with Mallophaga lice, probably due to its inability to eliminate the parasites.
The chicken flea (Ceratophyllus gallinae) is the most common flea in their nests. The small sparrow flea Ceratophyllus fringillae is also sometimes found there, which is probably due to the habit of common starlings to take over the nests of other species. This flea is not found in the United States, not even in the US population of the house sparrow.
Lice include species such as Menacanthus eurystemus, Brueelia nebulosa and Stumidoecus sturni. Other arthropod parasites include Ixodes ticks and mites such as Analgopsis passerinus, Boydaia stumi, Dermanyssus gallinae, Omithonyssus bursa, O. sylviarum, Proctophyllodes species, Pteronyssoides truncatus, and Trouessartia rosteri. The red mite of chickens (D. gallinae) is itself prey to the predatory mite Androlaelaps casalis. The presence of this type of control on the number of parasite species may explain why birds are willing to reuse old nests.
Common starlings can contract avian tuberculosis, avian malaria, and retrovirus-induced lymphomas. Captive starlings often accumulate excess iron in their livers, a disease that can be prevented by adding leaves of black tea to food.
Distribution and habitat
In 2004, the global population of common starlings was estimated at 310 million birds, spread over a total area of 8,870,000 km². With a general distribution throughout the northern hemisphere, the bird is native to Eurasia and is found throughout Europe, North Africa (from Morocco to Egypt), India (mainly in the north, but spreading regularly further south and into the Maldives), Nepal, the Middle East (including Syria, Iran and Iraq) and northwestern China.
Populations in southern and western Europe and south of the 40th parallel.oN are primarily residents, though other populations migrate from regions where winters are harsh, the ground frozen, and food scarce. Large numbers of birds from northern Europe, Russia and the Ukraine migrate south-west or south-east. In the autumn, when migrants arrive in Britain from Eastern Europe, many of Britain's common starlings migrate to the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Other groups of birds are passing through the country and the routes of different bird streams may cross. Of the 15,000 birds ringed as nestlings in Merseyside, England, individuals were recovered at various times of the year in places as as distant as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, and the Netherlands. Small numbers of common starlings have been recorded sporadically in Japan and Hong Kong but it is not clear where these birds originated. In North America, northern populations evolved a pattern of migration, vacating much of Canada in the winter. Birds in the eastern part of the country move south, and those in the west winter in the southwestern United States.
The common starling prefers urban or suburban areas where man-made structures and trees provide suitable nesting and roosting sites. It also favors reed beds as roosts, and the birds often forage in grassy areas, such as farm fields, prairies, ball fields, golf courses, and airstrips, where short grass facilitates foraging. Occasionally They inhabit open woodland and wooded areas and are sometimes found in shrubby areas such as the Australian heaths. Common starlings rarely inhabit dense, humid forests (ie, humid forests or sclerophyll forests), although they inhabit coastal areas, where they nest and rest on cliffs and forage among kelp. Its ability to adapt to a wide variety of habitats has allowed the dispersal and establishment of the species in different regions of the world and has given rise to a wide range of habitats that varies from coastal wetlands to alpine forests, from coastal cliffs to mountainous areas of up to 1900 meters above sea level.
Introduced Populations
The common starling has been introduced to New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, North America, Fiji, and several Caribbean islands, all areas where it has established itself successfully. As a result of some of these introductions it has managed to migrate to Thailand, Southeast Asia and New Guinea.
Venezuelan
Five individual birds transported by ship from England settled near Lake Maracaibo in Venezuela in November 1949, but subsequently disappeared.
Argentina
In 1987, a small population of Common Starlings was observed nesting in gardens in the city of Buenos Aires. Since then, despite some initial eradication attempts, the bird has managed to expand its breeding range to a average rate of 7.5 kilometers per year, and can be observed throughout the Pampas region and even in the provinces of Mendoza and San Luis in the west of the country. In Argentina the species uses a variety of natural and artificial nesting sites, particularly woodpecker holes. In La Plata, the capital of Buenos Aires, there is a population of over 30,000 and it is considered a plague.
Uruguay
On May 10, 2008, the first common starling was recorded in the park of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in the city of Montevideo, Uruguay. As of that date, there were a series of sightings of the species in said property, and also in various other points on the Atlantic coast of that country.[citation required]
Australia
It was introduced to Australia to combat insect pests of agricultural crops. Early settlers looked forward to their arrival, believing that common starlings were also important for pollinating flax, an important agricultural product. Nest boxes for newly released birds were placed on farms and nearby crops. The species was introduced to Melbourne in 1857 and to Sydney two decades later. By the 1880s, there were established populations in the south-east through the work of acclimatization committees. By the 1920s, the common starling had become established in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales, but was by then considered a pest. In the city of Albany the common starling was first seen in 1917, but the bird was not managed to spread to the rest of the state of Western Australia. The wide, arid Nullarbor Plain forms a natural barrier, and control measures were adopted that killed 55,000 birds in three decades. The species also managed to colonize Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.
New Zealand
When the first settlers in New Zealand cleared the forest, they found that their newly planted crops were invaded by large numbers of caterpillars and other insects deprived of their previous food sources. The native birds were not used to living in close proximity to humans, so the common starling was introduced from Europe to control the pests. It was first introduced in 1862 by the Nelson Acclimatization Society and other introductions followed. The birds quickly established themselves and now range across the country, including the Kermadec Islands, a group of subtropical islands in the north, and Macquarie Island about the same distance to the south.
North America
After two failed attempts, some 60 common starlings were released in 1890 by Eugene Schieffelin in New York's Central Park. Schieffelin was president of the American Acclimatization Society, which set out to introduce all bird species mentioned in William Shakespeare's play to North America. About the same date, the Portland Song Bird Club released 35 pairs of common starlings in Portland, Oregon. These birds managed to establish themselves, but disappeared around 1902. Common starlings reappeared in the Northwest region in the mid-1940s, probably descendants of the 1890 introduction to Central Park. The original 60 birds multiplied to a population of approximately 150 million, occupying an area that extends from southern Canada and Alaska to Central America.
Polynesia
The common starling appears to have reached the islands of Ono-i-lau and Vatoa in Fiji in 1925. It may have colonized Fiji from New Zealand, via Raoul Island which is part of the Kermadec Islands where it is abundant; that island group is roughly equidistant between New Zealand and Fiji. However, its spread in Fiji has been limited, and there are doubts about the viability of this population. Tonga was colonized around the same time, and the birds managed to spread slowly northward across the island group.
South Africa
In South Africa, the common starling was introduced in 1897 by Cecil Rhodes. It spread slowly, reaching Clanwilliam and Port Elizabeth in 1954. It is now common in the southern part of the Cape Province, becoming less common as far north as the Johannesburg area. Its range includes the Cape Province, Transkei and the Lesotho lowlands with occasional sightings in KwaZulu-Natal and the Orange Free State, as well as the area around the city of Oranjemund in Namibia. Southern African populations appear to be resident, and the bird is closely associated with man, his dwellings, and grasslands. It favors irrigated lands and is absent in regions with soils so dry that it cannot test or probe for insects. It may compete with native birds for crevices as nesting sites, but native species are probably more harmed by destruction of their natural habitat than by inter-specific competition. It breeds from September to December, and outside the breeding season it can concentrate in large flocks, often spending the night in reed beds. It is the most common bird species in urban and agricultural areas.
Caribbean
The common starling was introduced to Jamaica in 1903, and the Bahamas and Cuba were naturally colonized from the United States. It is a fairly common bird, but local to Jamaica, Grand Bahama, and Bimini, and is rare. common in the rest of the Bahamas, and eastern Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Puerto Rico, and Saint Croix.
Conservation
The global population of the common starling is estimated to number more than 310 million individual birds and it is believed that this number is not declining significantly, which is why the bird is classified as a species of least concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). A marked increase in their populations was observed in Europe from the 19th century until the 1950s and 1960s. Around the year 1830, S. v. vulgaris extended its range in the British Isles, into Ireland and parts of Scotland where it had previously been absent, although S. v. zetlandicus was already present in Shetland and the Outer Hebrides. It began breeding in northern Sweden from 1850, and in Iceland from 1935. The breeding range extended into southern France and northeastern Spain, and there were further expansions of its range, notably in Italy, Austria and Finland. In the Iberian Peninsula it began to breed in 1960, while the range of the black starling has expanded northward since the 1950s. The low rate of advance, around 4.7 km per year for both species, is due to the suboptimal conditions of the mountainous and wooded terrain. Since then, the expansion has slowed further due to direct competition between the two look-alike species in areas where they overlap, in southwestern France and northwestern Spain.
Significant declines in populations have been observed in Sweden, Finland, northern Russia (Karelia), and the Baltic states since 1980, as well as smaller declines in much of the rest of northern and central Europe. areas the bird was affected by intensive agriculture, and in several countries it was considered a locally threatened species, due to the population decline of more than 50%. In the UK the population of common starlings declined by more than 80% between 1966 and 2004; although populations in some areas, such as Northern Ireland, remained stable or even increased, those in other areas, notably England, fell even more drastically. The overall decline seems to be linked to the low survival rate of young birds, which is probably due to changes in farming practices. Intensive farming methods used in northern Europe have resulted in reduced numbers. grazing areas and thus a decreased supply of grassland invertebrates necessary for feeding and chick development.
Relationship with man
Benefits and problems
Because the common starling feeds on insects considered pests such as wireworms, it is considered a beneficial bird in northern Eurasia, and this was one of the reasons for its introduction elsewhere. 25 million nest boxes were built for this species in the former Soviet Union, and common starlings were found to be effective in controlling the grass larva Costelytra zelandica in New Zealand. Introduction The original in Australia was promoted by the provision of nest boxes to facilitate the reproduction of this mainly insectivorous bird, and even in the United States, where the common starling is treated as a pest, the Department of Agriculture acknowledges that it consumes large numbers of insects.
Regular starlings that were introduced to areas such as Australia or North America, where other members of the genus are absent, may have an impact on native species through competition for nesting sites. In North America, affected birds include tits, nuthatches, woodpeckers, purple swallows, and other hirundinids. In Australia, nest site competitors include the crimson rosella and eastern rosella. For their role in declining nesting sites local native species and the damage it causes to agriculture, was included in the list of the 100 most harmful invasive species in the world of the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The common starling also eats fruit and can cause damage to grape, peach, olive, gooseberry, and tomato orchards or dig up newly planted grain and germinating crops. It can also eat farm animal fodder and spread the seeds by their droppings. In eastern Australia, invasive plant species such as Asparagus asparagoides, blackberries and Chrysanthemoides monilifera are believed to have been spread by common starlings, thus affecting the native ecosystem. In the United States, damage to agriculture is estimated to be up to about $800 million per year. In South Africa, it is not considered to be as detrimental to agriculture as it is in the United States.
Large flock sizes can also cause problems. Birds can be sucked into aircraft jet engines, as occurred in a 1960 Boston incident in which 62 people died when a turboprop plane cut through a flock and plunged into the sea at Winthrop Harbor. Their droppings may contain the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum, the cause of histoplasmosis in humans. On roosting sites this fungus can thrive on accumulated droppings. There are a number of other infectious diseases that can be transmitted to humans, although the potential for birds to spread infections may have been exaggerated.
Control
Because of the damage they can cause, there have been several attempts to control native and introduced populations. Within the original breeding area, this may be affected by legislation. For example, in Spain the species is considered a food; it is hunted for commercial purposes and there is a closed season. In France the species is classified as a pest, and the killing season covers most of the year. In the UK common starlings can be killed at any time of the year. As it is a migratory species, the birds involved in control measures may come from a wide area and breeding populations may not be greatly affected. In Europe, variable legislation and migratory populations limit the long-term results of control attempts. The use of non-lethal techniques, such as visual or auditory devices to scare birds, have only a temporary effect.
Large flocks in urban areas can create problems due to the noise they make, the accumulation of droppings and the smell they cause. In 1949, so many birds landed on the hands of the Big Ben clock in London that it stopped. That led to failed attempts to deter flocks with netting, chemical repellent on ledges and the broadcast of recordings of common starling alarm calls. In 1954 an entire episode of The Goon Show was devoted to a parody of futile efforts to disturb the large common roosts of Common Starlings in central London.
In the areas where it was introduced, the common starling is not protected by legislation, which opens the possibility of initiating extensive control programs. The use of nest boxes can be prevented by ensuring that access holes are smaller than the 4 cm diameter required, and the removal of perches is a deterrent to visits to bird feeders.
Western Australia banned the importation of common starlings in 1895. New flocks arriving from the east are routinely shot at, while less cautious young are caught in traps and nets. New control methods are being developed, such as tracking a tagged bird to establish the roosting location of other members of the flock. Another technique involves analyzing the DNA of populations of Australian common starlings to map migration routes from East to West Australia and improve preventive strategies. In 2009, only 300 common starlings remained in Western Australia, and the state government set aside A$400,000 in that year to continue the eradication program.
In the United States, common starlings are exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act which prohibits taking or killing migratory birds, and authorization is not required to remove nests and eggs or kill the birds juveniles or adults. A study was carried out in 1966 to identify an avicide suitable for killing common starlings and palatable enough to be eaten by them. Low mammalian toxicity was also required, in order to prevent the consumption of dead birds by domestic animals from causing their deaths. The chemical that best met these criteria was DRC-1339, now marketed as Starlicide. In 2008, the United States Government killed 1.77 million birds, by poisoning, shooting, or trapping. In 2005, it was estimated the population of common starlings in the United States at 140 million birds, about 45% of the world total of 310 million birds.
In science and culture
The common starling can be kept as a pet or as a laboratory animal. Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote about the species in his book King Solomon's Ring, describing it as a "poor man's dog" and " something to love", because nestlings are easily obtained in the wild and after careful hand rearing, they are easy to keep as pets. It adapts well to captivity, thriving on a diet consisting of standard bird feed and meal worms. Several birds can be kept in the same cage, and their curiosity makes them easy to train or study. The only drawbacks are their indiscriminate defecation habits and the need to take precautions against diseases that can be transmitted to humans. It is frequently used as a laboratory bird, and as such is second only to the domestic pigeon.
Her gift for imitation has long been recognized. In Mabinogion, a medieval Welsh literary work, Branwen tamed a common starling, "taught it words" and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to his brothers, who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her. Pliny the Elder claimed that these birds could be taught to speak complete sentences in Latin and Greek, and in William Shakespeare's Henry IV, the figure of Hotspur declared " The king forbade me to speak of Mortimer, but I am going to find him where he sleeps, and shout in his ear: "Mortimer!" What's more, I'll have them teach a starling to speak, so that it won't say more than & # 34; Mortimer & # 34;, so I can give it to him as a gift and keep his rage alive. »
The composer Mozart had a pet starling that could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G major (KV. 453). He bought it in a store after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks earlier, which had not yet been performed in public. He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral when the pet died three years later. It has been suggested that His Musical Joke (K. 522) may have been written in the inconsequential, comic style of a common starling's vocalization Other owners of domesticated common starlings also commented on his talent for imitating phrases and expressions. Because words make no sense to the common starling, it often mixes them up in its songs or uses them at inappropriate times for humans. Its skill at mimicry is so great that unsuspecting visitors searched in vain for the human they thought they had heard of..
In some Mediterranean countries, common starlings are considered food and are trapped. The meat is tough and of low quality, and is usually prepared in a casserole or pate. One recipe mentions that it should be stewed "until tender, however long that may be." Even if prepared correctly, it can be seen as an acquired taste.
Gallery
Sterling band moving into unison in Burgos.
Nest in a tree hole
Eggs of Sturnus vulgaris
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