{"id":7539,"date":"2020-02-13T09:07:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:07:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539"},"modified":"2020-02-13T09:08:07","modified_gmt":"2020-02-13T14:08:07","slug":"european-starling-a-bad-rap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539","title":{"rendered":"European Starling &#8211; a bad rap"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure why starlings get a bad wrap, but I&#8217;ve bought into it. However, let&#8217;s take another look at this imported bird. From <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allaboutbirds.org\/guide\/European_Starling\/overview\">allaboutbirds.org<\/a> consider this.<br \/><br \/>First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent\u2019s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with short tails, triangular wings, and long, pointed bills. Though they\u2019re sometimes resented for their abundance and aggressiveness, they\u2019re 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. <br \/><br \/>All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds set loose in New York&#8217;s Central Park in the early 1890s. The birds were intentionally released by a group who wanted America to have all the birds that Shakespeare ever mentioned. It took several tries, but eventually the population took off. Today, more than 200 million European Starlings range from Alaska to Mexico, and many people consider them pests. <br \/><br \/>Because of their recent arrival in North America, all of our starlings are closely related. Genetically, individuals from Virginia are nearly indistinguishable from starlings sampled in California, 3,000 miles away. Such little genetic variation often spells trouble for rare species, but seems to offer no ill effects to starlings so far. <br \/><br \/>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. <br \/><br \/>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 \u2013 that\u2019s what gives them their spots. By spring, these tips have worn away, and the rest of the feather is dark and iridescent brown. It\u2019s an unusual changing act that scientists term \u201cwear molt.\u201d <br \/><br \/>In studies of starlings\u2019 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 \u2013 helpful since starlings lack the ability to digest sucrose. <br \/><br \/>Okay, after having read all of that, I&#8217;m still a little unsure about these nefarious little creatures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"900\" data-attachment-id=\"7535\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?attachment_id=7535\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?fit=600%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"600,900\" data-comments-opened=\"0\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;6.3&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;Hal Moran&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;Canon EOS 5D Mark III&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;1581521284&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;copyright by Hal Moran&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;546&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;2000&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0.008&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"HMoran-26116\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?fit=600%2C900&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?resize=600%2C900&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7535\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?w=600&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?resize=200%2C300&amp;ssl=1 200w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?resize=300%2C450&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not sure why starlings get a bad wrap, but I&#8217;ve bought into it. However, let&#8217;s take another look at this imported bird. From allaboutbirds.org consider this. First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent\u2019s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with<br \/><a class=\"moretag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539\">+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7535,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[203,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-birds","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>European Starling - a bad rap - Hal Moran - a wandering photographer<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"European Starling - a bad rap - Hal Moran - a wandering photographer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I&#8217;m not sure why starlings get a bad wrap, but I&#8217;ve bought into it. However, let&#8217;s take another look at this imported bird. From allaboutbirds.org consider this. First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent\u2019s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with+ Read More\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Hal Moran - a wandering photographer\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hal.moran\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T14:07:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-02-13T14:08:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?fit=600%2C900&ssl=1\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Hal\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@halmorandesign\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@halmorandesign\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Hal\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.halmoran.com\\\/?p=7539#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.halmoran.com\\\/?p=7539\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Hal\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.halmoran.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/6b2f167026ff1b87eac88f75b117bdce\"},\"headline\":\"European Starling &#8211; 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They are stocky black birds with+ Read More","og_url":"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539","og_site_name":"Hal Moran - a wandering photographer","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/hal.moran","article_published_time":"2020-02-13T14:07:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-02-13T14:08:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.halmoran.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/HMoran-26116.jpg?fit=600%2C900&ssl=1","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Hal","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@halmorandesign","twitter_site":"@halmorandesign","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Hal","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/?p=7539"},"author":{"name":"Hal","@id":"https:\/\/www.halmoran.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2f167026ff1b87eac88f75b117bdce"},"headline":"European Starling &#8211; 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