This is a European Starling – a common songbird in North America, a creature with purplish-green iridescent plumage, and a notorious invasive species.

Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/id

So how did this bird get to America?

The answer that many sources will tell you: Shakespeare and his avid followers.

Shakespeare frequently utilizes species of birds as symbols and metaphors in his plays and poetry. Birds such as hawks, wrens, owls, nightingales, larks, and some 60 other species, according to BBC, have all appeared in the playwright’s work.

Source: https://aipetcher.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/a-life-in-a-year-29th-january-eugene-schieffelin-and-starlings-in-the-usa-2/

Now, the story goes:

Eugene Schieffelin is a German immigrant who became the chairman of the American Acclimatization Society, a group founded in 1871 determined to introduce many of the European flora and fauna to North America. He admired Shakespeare so much that he made the decision that the society would bring all the aforementioned 60 “Shakespeare birds” into North America.

On a historical winter day in 1890, Schieffelin introduced to America 40 European Starlings in New York’s Central Park and a recipe for disaster. They quickly proliferated across North America; today more than 200 million inhabit the United States, spread disease to livestock, and cause annual agricultural damage of $800 million, according to the New York Times.

Source: https://aipetcher.wordpress.com/2011/01/29/a-life-in-a-year-29th-january-eugene-schieffelin-and-starlings-in-the-usa-2/

Now, I’m sure you are thinking that this is really interesting! But what if I tell you that aside from the giant bird-en starlings have placed on our ecosystem and economy, this story of the origin of starlings isn’t really true?

In 2021, researchers at Allegheny College published an environmental humanities analysis on the validity of the tale and investigated the reasons behind why starlings have such a bad reputation. According to their study, not a single source from the time period exists to validate the entire commonplace. While Shieffelin did release 40 starlings, it is unknown if he were actually a Lord of Avon superfan.

The connection though, first came to life through the words of Edwin Way Teale in his 1948 essay collection. While he suggested that Shieffelin may have been initially inspired by the Shakespeare garden in central park, the garden wasn’t constructed until 20 years after Shieffelin’s starling release.

On the other hand, the study concluded that the origin of hatred toward starlings may only partially be due to their environmental damages – but more due to cultural prejudices.

When starlings first arrived in the U.S. in the 1800s, they were welcomed and admired. But in the early 1900s, when they were definitively established in North America, it was the growing anti-immigration sentiment that expanded to nonhuman species that sparked the distaste for starlings, not their biological or ecological impacts.

Later on, the Shieffelin rumor began to disseminate, and now it’s wrongfully referenced in many places. I have seen this tale in podcasts, books, and even on a U.S. state invasive species information site.

Ultimately, I think it’s truly fascinating that the use of literary methods in this study unearthed to us how our views and languages shape our attitudes toward our environment.

References:

• https://sites.allegheny.edu/news/2021/02/16/how-shakespeare-and-starlings-led-to-a-flight-of-misinformation/
• https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27055030
• https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/11/science/starlings-birds-shakespeare.html