Common Starling; European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris)
While from a distance they look completely black in their summer plumage, get up close and you'll find this gorgeous purplish-green iridescence. The Starlings that inhabit my home in North America are not native to this part of the world, but were introduced, get this, by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century. It's kind of a wacky story really. After two failed attempts, about 60 European starlings were released into New York’s Central Park in 1890 by a small group of people with a passion to introduce all of the animals mentioned in the works of William Shakespeare. Really? ... ;oD ...Did Shakespeare ever mention tigers, bears or wolves?! looks furtively left, right and behind
Often thought of as pests, because they are loud, aggressive and have no problem overwhelming urban areas (there's about 150 million of them in North America), they eat bugs and help us when those get out of hand.
The Starling is a passerine (perching) bird, but are ground and field feeders as well. Their eggs are a lovely shade of, well, "Robin's Egg blue", though I can't find conclusive data as to why that is. Some say it's for blending in with the environment to protect the eggs when the parents are away, but I've yet to see any natural blue environment except the sky ... ;o7. Starlings don't stay this color all year long; in winter their feathers sport a well-decorated speckle: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Toulouse_-_Sturnus_vulgaris_-_2012-02-26_-_3.jpg
Sources:
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/id
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_starling
http://wdfw.wa.gov/living/starlings.html
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