European Starling | National Invasive Species Information Center

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European Starling, Adult - Lee Karney USDA, Agricultural Research Service.

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)

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.

Images

Google Images - European Starling

Google.

Invasive.org - European Starling

University of Georgia. Center for Invasive Species and Ecosystem Health.

Selected Resources

The section below contains highly relevant resources for this species, organized by source. Or, to display all related content view all resources for European Starling.

Partnership

Global Invasive Species Database - Sturnus vulgaris (bird)

IUCN. Species Survival Commission. Invasive Species Specialist Group.

Invasive Species Compendium - Sturnus vulgaris

CAB International.

Prevention and Control of Wildlife Damage: European Starlings and Their Control (PDF | 759 KB)

Internet Center for Wildlife Damage Management.

Citations

Cabe, P.R. 1998. The effects of founding bottlenecks on genetic variation in the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in North America. Heredity 80:519-525.
Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Sturnus vulgaris. [Accessed Sep 10, 2014].
Linz, G.M., H.J. Homan, S.M. Gaulker, L.B. Penry, and W.J. Bleier. 2007. European starlings: a review of an invasive species with far-reaching impacts with far-reaching impacts (PDF | 106 KB). In: Managing Vertebrate Invasive Species: Proceedings of an International Symposium, pp. 378-386.