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National Invasive Species Information Center
U.S. Department of Agriculture
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  4. European Starling

European Starling

Scientific Name

Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 (ITIS)

Common Name

European starling, common starling, English starling

Native To

Eurasia and northern Africa (Linz et al. 2007)

Date of U.S. Introduction

1890-91 (Cabe 1998)

Means of Introduction

Introduced by Eugene Schiefflin as part of a plan to introduce to the U.S. all birds mentioned in the works of Shakespeare (Cabe 1998)

Impact

Causes $800 million in agricultural damage annually (Linz et al. 2007)

Current U.S. Distribution

European starling populations have spread across North America making them common and widespread.

European Starling

European Starling, Adult

Credit

Lee Karney USDA, Agricultural Research Service.

Source
Invasive.org

Find more images

Spotlights

  • Starling Success Traced to Rapid Adaptation

    • Feb 9, 2021

    • Cornell University. Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

    • Love them or hate them, there's no doubt the European Starling is a wildly successful bird. A new study from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology examines this non-native species from the inside out. What exactly happened at the genetic level as the starling population exploded from just 80 birds released in New York City's Central Park in 1890, peaking at an estimated 200 million breeding adults spread all across North America? The study appears in the journal Molecular Ecology - "Environmental correlates of genetic variation in the invasive European starling in North America."

Distribution / Maps / Survey Status

All Resources

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Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source.

Partnership
Federal Government
International Government
State and Local Government
Academic
Citations