The European starling (starling) is not one of my favorite birds. Starlings are native to Europe and North Africa but were introduced to North America. Unlike Japanese beetles or spotted lanternflies, Starlings were intentionally released. A semi-eccentric man felt that birds mentioned in Shakespeare should then be found here in the U.S. Starlings were released in 1890 and again in 1891 in New York’s Central Park. They, of course, bred here successfully, and by 1942 were established all the way to California. Estimates vary, but most sources agree that at least 200 million starlings live in the U.S.

Starlings are cavity nesters, with two broods each year, fledging 8 to 10 young from those nests. I’ve seen them nesting in hollow trees, eaves of homes, barns, roadside advertising signs, and I actually watched pairs of starlings nesting in the huge warning balls placed on the electrical transmission lines that span Beltzville Lake. They do not excavate their own cavities like woodpeckers, and in fact have seriously been out-competing woodpeckers such as flickers, downy and red-bellied woodpeckers, and almost everyone’s favorite, the Eastern Bluebird. We have learned to build bluebird nest boxes with 1½ inch entrance holes that exclude the starlings. Starlings were probably the biggest factor in the bluebird’s rapid decline in the ’50s and ’60s.

Starlings rarely live in areas without human habitation. Our farms, parking lots, and shopping malls all offer food sources to them. They eat tons of grains at dairy and cattle farms and poultry farms. They really prefer eating fruits, especially fruits of invasive plants live autumn olive and Japanese honeysuckle.

They are a chief agent for spreading these invasives because their digestive process takes just enough time to allow the seed to be “readied” for germination soon after they pass with the starling’s waste droppings. You may have noticed the proliferation of autumn olive along pasture fences where the birds would frequent and, of course, defecate. One reason I chose them as a column topic is because about this time, your ornamental Bradford pears are chocked full of their fruits. Flocks of sometimes hundreds of starlings will descend on a tree and in no time at all they’ve gleaned every bit of fruit from the tree.

The second was to remind you that starlings in fall and winter generally mass in large flocks, usually well over 100 birds. When startled, they take flight in a mass of coordinated movements. These synchronized movements are called murmurations. The murmurations help confuse predatory hawks because it is almost impossible to focus on a single bird. When I see that synchronized flock flight, I immediately look for a cooper’s or sharp-shinned hawk or merlin chasing them. See if you notice that too this winter. The shifting and turning flocks in almost a choreographed fashion is actually a neat sight.

It may be getting colder but still get out there; there is always something to learn and enjoy.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: True/False, There are both goldenrod and silverrod plants.

Last Week’s Trivia Answer: This autumn was a great example to prove that you do not need a frost for leaf color to occur, so the answer was false.

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.