Starlings- ORDER: Passeriformes
- FAMILY: Sturnidae
Basic Description
First brought to North America in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent’s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with short tails, triangular wings, and long, pointed bills. Though they’re sometimes resented for their abundance and aggressiveness, they’re still dazzling birds when you get a good look. Covered in white spots during winter, they turn dark and glossy in summer. For much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy flocks.
More ID InfoFind This Bird
Starlings are common around cities and towns. Look in lawns, city parks and squares, and fields. They’ll be working their way across the grass, often moving in a slight zig-zag line and seeming to hurry as they stab their bills into the ground every step or two. In the countryside you’re more likely to see starlings perched in groups at the tops of trees or flying over fields or roads in tight flocks.
Other Names
- Estornino Pinto (Spanish)
- Étourneau sansonnet (French)
Backyard Tips
This species often comes to bird feeders. Find out more about what this bird likes to eat and what feeder is best by using the Project FeederWatch Common Feeder Birds bird list.
- Cool Facts
- European Starlings were first brought to North America in the late nineteenth century and introduced to sites including Ohio, Quebec, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Oregon. These introductions were thought to have been mostly unsuccessful, but a population took hold following introductions in New York City's Central Park in 1877, 1890, and 1891. Today, an estimated 93 million European Starlings range from Alaska to Mexico.
- Starlings are great vocal mimics: individuals can learn the calls of up to 20 different species. Birds whose songs starlings often copy include the Eastern Wood-Pewee, Killdeer, meadowlarks, Northern Bobwhite, Wood Thrush, Red-tailed Hawk, American Robin, Northern Flicker, and many others.
- Starlings turn from spotted and white to glossy and dark each year without shedding their feathers. The new feathers they grow in fall have bold white tips – that’s what gives them their spots. By spring, these tips have worn away, and the rest of the feather is dark and iridescent brown. It’s an unusual changing act that scientists term “wear molt.”
- Starlings are strong fliers that can get up to speeds of 48 mph.
- In studies of starlings’ sense of taste, scientists have discovered that they can taste salt, sugars, citric acid, and tannins (bitter compounds that occur in many fruits, including acorns and grapes). They can tell the difference between sucrose (table sugar) and other kinds of sugars—helpful since starlings lack the ability to digest sucrose.
- The oldest recorded wild European Starling in North America was a male and was at least 15 years, 3 months old when he died in Tennessee in 1972. He had been banded in the same state in 1958.