Length: About 8½ inches.

General Appearance: A short-tailed, long-billed black bird with flecks of brown that look like freckles.

Male and Female: Head purple, flecked with light brown spots; body purple and green, the purple predominating on back and sides, the green on the breast. In summer, the upper parts and sides are speckled, the breast and belly dark, and the bill yellow. In winter, the upper parts are spotted with light brown, the under parts with white; the bill is brown until January, when it begins to turn yellow.

Notes: Squeaks and gurgles, interspersed with pleasant musical notes. A flock of starlings make a great deal of noise.

Range: Numerous starlings live in the Eastern Hemisphere. A number of them were brought to America in 1890 and released in Central Park, New York City. They have increased in number and enlarged their range greatly. They have spread northward and southward; they are now reasonably common near Boston and Washington, as well as New York and other places in the East.

In the winter, starlings are easily identified, because they are the only black birds smaller than crows to be found in some localities. In the spring, they may be readily distinguished from grackles because they have yellow bills, dark eyes, and short, square tails, while grackles have dark bills, yellow eyes, and long tails. Both starlings and grackles are iridescent; a near view reveals the spotted plumage of the starlings and the iridescent bars on the backs of the purple grackles.

Major Bendire says that starlings possess unusual adaptability and can make their nests in a great variety of places. Accusations are brought against them for driving away bluebirds and even flickers. It remains to be seen how much harm is done to our native birds in this way.

There are different opinions regarding the economic value of Old World starlings. Mr. Forbush tells of an Australian locust invasion near Ballarat, Victoria, which made terrible havoc with crops. “It was feared that all the sheep would have to be sold for want of grass, when flocks of Starlings, Spoon-bills, and Cranes made their appearance and in a few days made so complete a destruction of the locusts that only about forty acres of grass were lost.” Mr. Forbush gives also “the experience of the forest authorities in Bavaria during the great and destructive outbreak of the nun moth which occurred there from 1889 to 1891. The flight of Starlings collected in one locality alone was creditably estimated at ten thousand, all busily feeding on the caterpillars, pupÆ and moths. The attraction of Starlings to such centers became so great that market-gardeners at a distance felt their absence seriously.”[46]

In an article by E. R. Kalmbach of the Biological Survey, published in “The Auk” of April, 1922, and entitled “A Comparison of the Food Habits of British and American Starlings,” occur the following statements by Dr. Walter E. Collinge, the eminent Scotch biologist:

“The Starling offers a most serious menace to the production of home-grown food, and any further increase in its numbers can only be fraught with the most serious consequences.” He says also, “For many years past there has been taking place a sure but gradual change of opinion with reference to the economic status of the Starling, for from one of our most useful wild birds it has become one of the most injurious. Its alarming increase throughout the country threatens our cereal and fruit crops, and the magnitude of the plague is now fully realized.” He states further, “There is fairly reasonable evidence to show that in the past the bulk of the food consisted of insects and insect larvÆ, slugs, snails, earthworms, millepedes, weed seeds, and wild fruits; in more recent years, this has been supplemented by cereals and cultivated fruits and roots.”

Mr. Kalmbach reports a better record for the starling in America, and refers to the decision made by the Department of Agriculture, reported in Bulletin 868:

“Most of the Starling’s food habits have been demonstrated to be either beneficial to man or of a neutral character. Furthermore, it has been found that the time the bird spends in destroying crops or in molesting other birds is extremely short compared with the endless hours it spends searching for insects or feeding on wild fruits. Nevertheless, no policy would be sound which would give the bird absolute protection and afford no relief to the farmer whose crops are threatened by a local overabundance of the species.... The individual farmer will be well rewarded by allowing a reasonable number of Starlings to conduct their nesting operations on the farm. Later in the season a little vigilance will prevent these easily frightened birds from exacting an unfair toll for services rendered.”