European Starling

Sturnus vulgarisOrder: PASSERIFORMES Family: Starling (Sturnidae)

Codes: Common Name: EUST Scientific Name: STUVUL ITIS Taxonomic No.: 179637

European Starling: The breeding adult European Starling is an iridescent purple and green black bird with white flecks overall. The bill is yellow with a blue base in males, a pink base in females.

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Overview

European Starling: Small, chunky, iridescent purple and green blackbird with long, pointed yellow bill, pink legs, and short tail. The feathers on back and undertail show buff edges. Feeds in open areas, normally on the ground. Strong, direct and swift flight on rapidly beating wings.

Range and Habitat

European Starling: Native to Eurasia, but widely introduced worldwide. Occurs from Alaska and Quebec south throughout the continent to the Gulf coast and northern Mexico. Preferred habitats include cities, suburban areas, farmlands, and ranches.

Topo Map: Perching-like Body

Listen to Call

Voice Text

Sings various high-pitched trilling melodies, clear whistles, liquid warbles, harsh clatters, rattles, and twitters.

Interesting Facts

All of the 200 million European Starlings found in North America today are descendants of approximately 100 birds released in New York City's Central Park in the early 1890s by an industrialist who wanted to establish, in the U.S., all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare.

Flocks are also noted for forming a tight sphere-like formation in flight, then expanding, contracting, whirling and even changing shape, all seemingly without any sort of leader, much as a school of fish. These displays sometime involve thousands of birds and are very spectacular.

They compete aggressively for nesting sites and may evict the occupants of desired holes, including the woodpeckers that excavated them.

An individual bird can mimic up to 20 species, including Eastern Wood Pewee, Killdeer, and Meadowlark songs.

A group of starlings has many collective nouns, including "a constellation of starlings", "a filth of starlings", "a murmuration of starlings", "a scourge of starlings", and a "vulgarity of starlings."

Bird Term Glossary

Author

Gary Owen Dick

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Bird Call Credits: The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Martyn Stewart, http://www.naturesound.org, Redmond, Washington USA. The reuse or copying of bird calls in this database is strictly forbidden.

European Starling

● Song: Sings various high-pitched trilling melodies, clear whistles, liquid warbles, harsh clatters, rattles, and twitters.

● Foraging & Feeding: European Starling: Eats seeds, insects, small vertebrates, centipedes, spiders, earthworms, plants, and fruits; commonly takes food discarded by humans.

● Breeding & nesting: European Starling: Four to eight pale blue or green eggs, sometimes marked with brown, are laid in a nest made of twigs, grass, forbs, straw, and trash. Nest is lined built in a natural hollow of a tree, bird box, building crevice, or abandoned woodpecker hole. Incubation ranges from 12 to 14 days.

● Similar species: European Starling: Blackbirds, cowbirds and grackles have longer tails, slimmer bodies, dark bills, and lack white spots on head and body.

Flight Pattern

Swift direct flight with rapid wing beats.

European Starling Breeding Male Body Illustration

● Range & Habitat: European Starling: Native to Eurasia, but widely introduced worldwide. Occurs from Alaska and Quebec south throughout the continent to the Gulf coast and northern Mexico. Preferred habitats include cities, suburban areas, farmlands, and ranches.

^BreedingMonogamous, Loose colonies

^Population

^MigrationNorthern birds migrate

^Weight3 Ounces

Perching-like Body

4 and 6 letter alpha codes

The four letter common name alpha code is is derived from the first two letters of the common first name and the first two letters of common last name. The six letter species name alpha code is derived from the first three letters of the scientific name (genus) and the first three letters of the scientific name (species). See (1) below for the rules used to create the codes..

Four-letter (for English common names) and six-letter (for scientific names) species alpha codes were developed by Pyle and DeSante (2003, North American Bird-Bander 28:64-79) to reflect A.O.U. taxonomy and nomenclature (A.O.U. 1998) as modified by Supplements 42 (Auk 117:847-858, 2000) and 43 (Auk 119:897-906, 2002). The list has been updated by Pyle and DeSante to reflect changes reported by the A.O.U from 2003 through 2006.

Field Guide to Birds of North America