Index – Science – Americans attribute one of the most irritating invasive bird species to Shakespeare

04/17/2020 Hungary

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But I go to him when he falls asleep;

And this in my ears: Mortimer!

I’ll even show you a starling

The word Mortimer, and I give you

To excite his furious fury.

– William Shakespeare wrote sometime in the late 16th century IV. In his royal drama Henrik (and translated by József Lévay a little later). The relevant part is pronounced exactly when the Thermic who rebels against the king fantasizes about teaching the name of one of the king’s opponents, Mortimer, to a starling to torture him with.

In his plays, Shakespeare liked to use a wide range of birds for the widest variety of dramaturgical purposes possible, but he did not mention starlings in any of his plays except in this example. That’s why it’s ridiculous that starlings actually came to the United States because of that, where they have now become one of the most annoying invasive species and practically everyone hates them. But how did they get here?

Thanks Shakespeare!

The natural disaster was triggered in the United States on March 6, 1890, by a German-based pharmaceutical company, Eugene Schifflin, who released this sixty starlings, imported from Europe at a very expensive price, in Central Park, New York, without any hidden motive. Schifflin also loved Shakespeare and birds very much, and as a member of the American Acclimatization Society, which aims to introduce European flora and fauna to America, he has tried to introduce birds that stand out in the works of the English playwright.

Because of this, the organization also released nightingales and woodpeckers in the United States, but they soon perished, so there really was no reason to suppose that the exact same thing would not happen with starlings. In addition to the failure of previous attempts, it was also quite cold at the time, meaning that, logically, everything indicated that Schifflin, a bird lover, had sentenced sixty starlings to death at one time. However, the birds proved to be much tougher than their previously dead companions, found refuge under the ledge of the Natural History Museum, and successfully survived the winter.

Then they began to multiply at a dizzying rate.

This doesn’t sound too scary on idle, but starlings have been found to have traits that give them an edge over a number of other bird species. They nest in nests protected by predators, but there are a finite number of them everywhere, so the birds that nest here have to constantly compete for places. And starlings are extremely good at this, despite their small size, they are muscular and aggressive, so they can essentially knock down all their native competitors in the real estate market.

The muscles that move their beaks are unusually strong, so they can find their invertebrate preys lurking on the ground, even in drier and colder environments. Throughout evolution, their eyes have evolved to complement this skill, which is why starlings are so good at getting food that they don’t even have to move to warmer rural areas in winter, so they start to get a head start. when acquiring nests.

Harmful, but at least beautiful

In addition to being more skillful than other birds, starlings also tend to literally eject them from their nests. Researchers say there is a link between an increase in the starling population and a decrease in the population of other birds, such as red-headed sparrows, bluebirds, or northern crickets, but among other bird species, humans also have reason to fear them. .

Birds are a particular threat near airports, on the one hand, because they congregate in large flocks and have very dense bodies. Starlings are also the most serious bird-related accident in American aviation history, killing 62 people in 1960 when a swarm of starlings flew into the engine of a plane taking off from Boston Logan International Airport, crashing into the harbor. .

Its impact on agriculture is also quite severe. They are estimated to cause $ 1 billion in damage a year by destroying wheat fields, without preserving fruit trees, and, surprisingly, even degrading the fertility of dairy farms by stealing the best quality grain for cows. Finally, they also spread many diseases and under their nest Histoplasma capsulatum It also tends to colonize a fungus called spores, whose spores can even kill in extreme cases.

Incidentally, also in the United States, they quickly realized that starlings were harmful, but in vain they tried to exterminate them in various ways, and their numbers grew. Even today, approximately 200 million individuals live in the country, with starlings among the few bird species that are not considered protected. But even though they are constantly exterminated, their numbers do not really decrease. Based on this, one can easily believe that there is nothing good in starlings, but apart from the negative, they are especially beautiful birds, whose songs are good to listen to, especially because they like to imitate other species. It is no coincidence that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart also had a starling, which he buried in 1787, when he passed away, in a separate ceremony.

Sources: BBC, Smithsonian Magazine