Starlings and Shakespeare

"The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer. But I will find him when he is asleep, and in his ear I’ll holler ‘Mortimer!’ Nay I’ll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer, and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion." Henry IV

Which is why we have the European Starling in the United States. In 1890 Eugene Scheifflin imported and released 60 starlings in Central Park on the theory that every bird species mentioned in a Shakespeare play should find a perch in the New World.

Here they flock with Brewer's Blackbirds. They love my roof. Lucky me. Henry IV isn't my favorite play and the Starling isn't my favorite bird. The native species of Chickadees, Nuthatches, Nutcrackers, and Finches are nearer and dearer to my heart. We even had a Western Tanager stop by one year. The Mourning Doves are escapees from a local shooting range. Starlings are something we've seen increase recently along with Pigeons. This is probably directly due to the filling in of irrigation ditches and replacement by wheel sprinkler systems. Magpies, Ravens and Starlings have thrived in the less diverse ecosystem and the smaller birds are having trouble keeping up.