This starling in the snow makes for a very nice photograph. I wasn’t all that enthused when it showed up over my main interest of a Cardinal, Flicker, or maybe a hawk. But in the short bit of time we had, I came to appreciate it’s beauty in such a winter setting.
Funny thing about Starlings…they aren’t cared for very much for a variety of reasons…their bullies in the backyard when it comes to other birds, they gather in large flocks and can make quite a mess, plus these large flocks cause problems at airports and in other places in modern life.
Here’s a short snippet from the BBC…
In 1890, a German immigrant named Eugene Schieffelin decided it would be a great idea to introduce as many of Shakespeare’s birds as possible to North America.
One cold winter’s day he released 60 starlings into New York’s Central Park in the hope they would start breeding.
Unfortunately, they did.
The US is now home to an estimated 200 million European starlings. Thickset and pugnacious, starlings are the bruisers of the avian world.
And they are now such a nuisance they are one of the few bird species unprotected by law.
So much for a bird from the writings of Shakespeare.