DVOC Main Page > Birding the Delaware Valley Region > Birds of the Delaware Valley > Species Description

European Starling
Sturnus vulgaris

From DVOC's Delaware Valley Birds: "Throughout area."
Click Here to see the accounts and photos of European Starling at VIREO's Birding Resources--Common Feeder Birds.

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Habitat:
Cavity nester in urban areas and open country.

Status and Distribution:
Common resident found through the Delaware Valley
Range:
Found throughout Canada and the United States
History/State Records:
First introduced into the United States on March 6, 1890, when 80 European Starlings were released in Central Park, New York. Quickly spreading into the Delaware Valley, one was shot near Odessa, in New Castle County, Delaware in 1901.

The first record in Pennsylvania came from Trevose, Bucks County in 1904. First recorded in New Jersey in 1907, they reached Cape May by 1909 and were listed as one of southern New Jersey’s most abundant birds by the mid-1930s.


© A & J Binns

Additional Information:
Form huge flocks in the winter where roosts can consist of birds gathered from a 30 mile radius.

Highly aggressive, this non-native species competes for cavities with woodpeckers, Great Crested Flycatchers and Bluebirds.