By Jonathan Rosen Published: April 22, 2007 European starlings
have a way of appearing in unexpected places -- the United
States, for example, where they are not native but owe their
origin to a brief reference in Shakespeare's ''Henry IV, Part
1.'' In 1890, a drug manufacturer who wanted every bird found in
Shakespeare to live in America released 60 starlings in Central
Park. After spending a few years nesting modestly under the
eaves of the American Museum of Natural History, they went from
a poetic fancy to a menacing majority; there are now upward of
200 million birds across North America, where they thrive at the
expense of other cavity nesters like bluebirds and woodpeckers,
eat an abundance of grain -- as well as harmful insects -- and
occasionally bring down airplanes. In Europe, where the birds
are native -- Mozart had a pet starling that could sing a few
bars of his piano concerto in G major -- they still have the
power to turn heads. Each fall and winter, vast flocks gather in
Rome. They spend the