Why are European Starlings in North America?

#bird #invasivespecies #shakespeare
One of the most spectacular avian phenomena in the world is the synchronized flights of a starling flock, called a murmuration. These flights that are a somewhat common sight across the Northern Hemisphere in human cities, indicating a truth about North American avian fauna; just about everywhere in North America you find the same two common birds, the European starling and the house sparrow. The thing is that both of these birds are not native to North America, they are from Europe. What is up with that?
We have to go back to the 1800s and the man who was involved in the introduction of both species to North America, Eugene Schieffelin. A pharmacist by profession, he was also a member of various societies in the city, one of those being the American Acclimatization society, whos goal was to introduce many species to the North America. They actually were not responsible entirely for the house sparrow, they were first brought to Brooklyn in 1850 to help stop an infestation of linen moths prior to the societies foundation, but this first attempt failed, then in 1852 Schieffelin sponsored to introduction of another group, that despite not doing well initially, where cared for over their first winter and released in the spring, and where the first members of the current North American House sparrow population.
The house sparrow was enough of a disaster to the avian ecology of North America, but Eugene and the American Acclimatization society were far from done. In 1864 the society brought many european bird species to Central Park, java sparrows, chaffinches, European blackbirds, and more house sparrows. By 1877 Eugene Schieffelin was the chair of the society, and more birds were released, skylarks, pheasants and the first attempts at the european starling. Starlings failed to colonize America twice, until a shipment of 60 starlings were released by Eugene and his society into central park in 1890, then in 1891 he released 40 more, from these 100 birds came their some 200 million living descendants found from coast to coast in North America. The common story about the release of the starlings is our good friend Eugene was such a fan of Shakespere’s plays and such a bird lover he wanted every bird mentioned in Shakespere to be released in central park. The Shakespeare connection is not as strong as long popularized in urban legend, Schieffelin seemed just as interested to get rid of those pest insects that drove the introduction of the house sparrow.
note: Eugene Schieffelin was defiantly more responsible for the European starling, but from my understanding was somewhat involved with house sparrows, but this connection is more tenuous, so i\I encourage you to do more research on your own.

Sources
Barrows, Walter B. (1889). "The English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) in North America, Especially in its Relations to Agriculture". United States Department of Agriculture, Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalology Bulletin (1).
Reimann, M. (2017, August 7). This foolish bird lover brought a few sparrows to America, and now there are 540 million of them. Retrieved from https://timeline.com/sparrows-invasive-species-america-9546e6a9e57e.
Lawton, D. (n.d.). How to protect bluebirds from house sparrows. Retrieved from https://www.backyardchirper.com/bird-info-121.html.
Russell. "Starlings". Living with Wildlife. Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife. Archived from the original on 2012-09-08. Retrieved 2013-01-02.
Edward Tenner, Why Things Bite Back, pp. 152-155, (New York: Vintage Books, 1997).
"European starlings". Wildlife Damage Management. USDA Wildlife Services. 2011-09-27. Archived from the original on 2013-02-01. Retrieved 2012-12-29.

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