Female European Starling for Birding Magazine by WaryCassowary on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

This is the second of two illustrations I created for an article in Birding Magazine. Read the first installment of the story here: warycassowary.deviantart.com/a…

This issue of Birding features "A Teen Birder's Anthology", a collection of articles written by young birders. My illustrations were for an article titled "The Bird that Birders Love to Hate". European Starlings are an invasive species and birders generally treat them as vermin. This article brought up some of the redeeming qualities of the starling, such as:

--Their ability to successfully adapt to and colonize a new environment. 100 starlings were released in Central Park, New York in the 1890's. Their population in the US is now over 200 million!

--Their incredible mimicry. Starlings can be taught to talk like parrots, as shown in this video (skip to 1:50 to hear it talk): www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhBaVI…
Here's another one cause I can't help myself www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6tnS2…

--The beauty of their murmations (flocks of up to tens of thousands of birds). To view this spectacle, check out this viral video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRNqhi…

--And of course their surprisingly colorful and iridescent plumage, which I emphasized in my paintings.

Lastly, here's a little-known fact about starlings which I learned from the editor of Birding Magazine, Ted Floyd. Male starlings have blue at the base of their beaks, while females have pink. Wow, a field mark which is actually easy to remember! This photo shows the difference very well:

nzbirdsonline.org.nz/sites/all…

Amazingly, this story isn't over yet. A third installment is to come. Stay tuned!