We're getting near the end of the series on birds, we've arrived at the Starlings, in the family Sturnidae. Yes, amazingly enough, this is in the same family of the ubiquitous and ugly European Starling - Sturnus vulgaris. In the tropical regions of the Old World, the starlings are among some of the most stunningly colored birds you'll find. This individual is called the Superb Starling - Lamprotornis superbus. The eye color is a good way to distinguish this from the extremely similar Hildebrandt's Starling - Lamprotornis hildebrandti.
In the US there is one species of Starling, the imported European Starling. This was and is perhaps the greatest bird-introduction incident in the history of the US. The European Starling was originally imported by a very eccentric gentleman who decided that all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare. While most of the species he imported floundered and died out, the European Starling did not. In fact, the small number that were imported were so phenomenally successful that the European Starling is one of the most numerous birds in the country, and that is a very bad thing.
The European Starling was successful because it is extremely adaptive and opportunistic. These birds nest in holes, and have set up in anything remotely resembling one, such as cavities in street lights and unfortunately in the nests and holes of native species. This has caused a large decline in a great many species of native birds, particularly birds like Woodpeckers. Alas, there numbers are far too great to ever remove them from there new home. When their nests are found, they are often removed, so every little bit helps. Hopefully our native fauna will learn to adapt to curtail this extremely successful invasive species.
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