The Starling's Story
Two years ago, birder friends reported that the European starling had been spotted in a field at the edges of Dhaka's Uttara neighbourhood. They were excited because this bird is not seen in Bangladesh, making it a rare sighting. I was not too thrilled, however. The European starling is a nasty piece of work. There, I said it.
Take North America, for instance, where the European starling originally did not exist. But a little over a century ago, in 1890, an eccentric American businessman by the name of Eugene Schieffelein – who had made a fortune from pharmaceuticals – imported sixty European starlings from England in an ocean liner and released them in New York's Central Park. The next year he released another forty. The businessman had an eccentric goal: introduce into North America all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's plays. Over subsequent years, many such introductions such as skylarks, nightingales and song thrushes did not survive or thrive.
But the European starling's story was different. It had a slow start, building the first breeding nest in the eaves of the Museum of Natural History, across the street from Central Park. From there it went on to succeed beyond anyone's wildest expectations.
Within a few decades of its introduction it had spread to the furthest corners of the continent: Alaska, Florida and California. Today those 100 European starlings have multiplied into approximately 150 million found all over North America.
No doubt a non-native bird in these large numbers has made life difficult for many native species of North American birds. Their effect was also felt by others, particularly farmers. European starlings are voracious creatures, willing to eat just about anything. They also reproduce profusely. Further, they are difficult to eliminate and can adapt quickly to new surroundings.
I have seen these birds in many places outside Bangladesh. My most memorable encounter with them was in Villa Borghese, the 200-acre park in central Rome. Inside the park, black birds with shiny spots of green and purple puttered about in small groups, swimming in puddles, searching for insects and taking the occasional short flight. They reminded me of a group of shaliks on Bengal's soil.
This harmless group seemed far removed from reality: that flocks of European starlings can become gigantic - sometimes totalling over a million birds – while creating a massive dark cloud that descends into cities and villages, destroys crops, and leaves a mess with their droppings. For example, a cloud of European starlings can devour twenty tons of potatoes in a day. No wonder farmers in California and other places tried hard to eradicate it.
Near Bangladesh, European starlings can be found in northern India. It is not clear to me why they have been unable to set down roots in Bangladesh. One possible reason is the aggressive behaviour of some of our populous native species such as common myna (bhat shalik), black drongo (fingey), red-vented bulbul (bulbuli) and pied starling (pakra shalik). I imagine these birds, with their assertive survival skills, would make it hard for a newcomer like the European starling to settle down in this land. And – with all due respect to Eugene Schieffelein - that is a good thing!
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