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European Starlings

History

The European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) was first introduced into the United States in the 1890s. A wealthy drug manufacturer and Shakespeare lover, Eugene Scheifflen, decided he would attempt to bring every bird mentioned by Shakespeare to the United States, starting with starlings. The first flocks were located in Central Park. By 1910 the birds were well-established on the East Coast south to Virginia. By 1942 they had spread the width of the United States to California.

While starlings are useful in that they consume vast quantities of insects, agricultural damage and human health and safety concerns have ensured the bird's reputation as primarily that of a pest.

Types of Damage

Starlings, like blackbirds and many other pest birds, form communal roosts. These roosts can be home to 10,000 or more birds. The combined weight of large numbers of birds may break small branches and new shoots of trees, causing disfiguration. The accumulation of droppings, which may exceed 1 ft in depth, are phytotoxic and can kill mature trees. Roosts near airports are a potential safety hazard. Airborne starlings can be sucked into plane engines causing extensive damage or downing the plane. Filth, noise and odors from roosts near or in urban areas disturb nearby residents.

Starling depredations impact numerous agricultural crops including cherries, grapes, peaches, blueberries, strawberries, figs, apples, and ripening corn. Cattle feedlots suffer most from wintertime flocks which can reach as high as 100,000 or more per day. Individual starlings, which weigh approximately 3 ounces, can each eat up to 1 ounce of food per day. A million starlings can consume 27,500 tons of livestock feed during winter months and despoil more feed with their droppings.

Diseases such as the transmissible gastroenteritis virus (TGE) may be spread by starlings.

Finally, starlings compete with native cavity-nesting birds such as bluebirds, flickers, and other woodpeckers for nesting space causing a decline in numbers for these species.

Summary taken from:

PIMENTAL, D., L. LACH, R. ZUNIGA, AND D. MORRISON. 2000. Environmental and economic costs of nonindigenous species in the United States. Bioscience 53: 53-65.

Economic Considerations

Invasive European starlings were reported to the USDA's Wildlife Services program as causing damage in every state except North Dakota and Alaska. In the Great Plains, starlings often migrate and roost with blackbirds. Consequently, the birds may not have been accounted for in every geographic location due to their mixing with blackbirds. Over the 8-year period, 1990-1997, starlings accounted for more than $13.5 million in damage to all resources, ranging from $235,067 to $4,137119, with an average of $1,694,170 and a median of $1,457,014 per year. Pimental et al. (2000) estimated that yearly starling damage to agriculture was $800 million in damages per year to agriculture crops based on a figure of $5/ha. The Wildlife Services-reported damage, attributable to starlings, comprised only 1.7% of this total. If Wildlife Services had summed up the starling crop damages alone, the figure would be considerably smaller when considering that the majority of starling damage is to property. This does not account for the 25 diseases that may be transmitted to humans (Weber 1979) where a monetary value can not be readily derived. It is also difficult to derive a monetary value for environmental damage caused by starlings, such as displacing native birds from nesting cavities. (Bergman 2002).

Prevention and control

Control of starling damage includes exclusion; proper nest box construction; frightening devices such as distress calls, exploders, lights, and pyrotechnics; repellents; the pesticide Avitrol and toxicants. At feedlots, better farm management practices can limit the amount of feed available.

Cooperative Extension Materials

Starling Management in Agriculture University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension NCR451
Starlings -- Quick Reference Sheet University of Florida
Nonnative Birds - European Starling (background, description, control methods) University of Florida
Starlings Colorado State University
Starlings: Chemical Control Purdue University
European Starling: Damage Prevention and Control (Prevention & Control of Wildlife Damage chapter
European Starling (Wildlife Damage Management Series) Utah State University
Starling Management in Agriculture (University of Nebraska)
Managing Nuisance Animals Around the House. Starlings p 15 (University of Tennessee)
Avian Aliens (Missouri Department of Conservation)

References

BERGMAN, D., M. CHANDLER, AND A. LOCKLEAR. 2002. The economic impact of invasive species to Wildlife Services' cooperators. Pages 169-178 in L. Clark, J. Hone, J., Shivik, K. VerCauteren, R. Watkins, and J. Yoder, editors. Human wildlife conflicts: economic considerations. National Wildlife Research Center, Fort Collins, Colorado.

PIMENTEL, D., L. LACH, R. ZUNIGA , AND D. MORRISON. 2000. Environmental and economic costs of nonindigenous species in the United States. BioScience 50:53-65.

WEBER, W. J. 1979. Health hazards from pigeons, starlings and English sparrows: diseases and parasites associated with pigeons, starlings, and English sparrows which affect domestic animals; Thomson Publications: Fresno, CA.