European Starling

The European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), sometimes called the common starling or just the starling in Great Britain and Ireland is a medium-sized passerine bird that belongs to the Sturnidae family of starlings. It measures around 20 cm in length and has glossy, metallic-looking black plumage that is occasionally flecked with white. Young birds have browner plumage than adults do; their legs are pink, and their bills are black in the winter and yellow in the summer. It is a noisy bird with an unmusical but varied song, especially in communal roosts and other social settings. Its propensity for mimicking has been mentioned in works of literature such as the Mabinogion, Pliny the Elder, and William Shakespeare.

The large flocks that are characteristic of this species can help agriculture by reducing the number of invertebrate pests, but starlings can also be pests since they eat fruit and budding plants. Common starlings can be a bother because of the clutter and noise their sizable urban roosts produce. With the exception of avoiding the colonization of Western Australia, introduced populations have been subjected to a variety of measures, including culling.