Nature,
beautiful trees, and birds bring life to the countryside in the spring.
Starlings, specifically the Amethyst Starling are an adorable type of bird that
has caught our eye. You'll understand that they're called that if you see it.
The
Amethyst Starling (Cinnyricinlus leucogaster) can be found across Africa, from
northern South Africa to Senegal on the west coast to northern Tanzania on the
east. Woodland, savanna forest margins, and riverine habitat are all home to
Amethyst Starlings. They are pleasant birds but they have a habit of displacing
native birds as an introduced species.
Image
credits: jeff.meredith
Shakespeare's
plays and poems contain many references to birds. However, in the United
States, one of the bard's birds has become a huge annoyance. The playwright's
canon includes choughs, wrens, cormorants, owls, nightingales, larks, and more
than 60 other animals that have inspired bird lovers for decades.
So much
so that a German immigrant named Eugene Schieffelin determined in 1890 that
introducing as many of Shakespeare's birds as possible to North America would
be a brilliant idea.
Image
credits: zoo_snapper
60
starlings were introduced into New York's Central Park during his tenure as
chairman of the American Acclimatization Society in the hopes that they will
start breeding. They did, unfortunately, and the United States now has an
estimated 200 million European starlings.
Image
credits: 34strange
They eat
whatever they can get their hands on as do other starling animals. That
includes anything from insects to tree frogs to fruits and berries in their
natural environment. Unfortunately, they have the same bad habits that have led
to starlings being too invasive in North America. When food is scarce they are
not hesitant to invade other bird species' nests, taking both nesting materials
and hatchlings. As majestic as they are to look at these birds can be true
monsters in moments like these.
Image
credits: mike_strydom_photography
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