Common starling

Sturnus vulgaris

Group: Upland birds
Size class: Small (under 10 kg)
Family: Sturnidae

Range

Europe
North America

Habitat

Farmland

Range

Countries it is found in

108 countries

Afghanistan
Åland Islands
Albania
Algeria
Andorra
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria
Azerbaijan
Bahamas
Bahrain
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Bermuda
Bosnia & Herzegovina
Brazil
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
China
Croatia

Range from:Wikipedia country bird lists, GBIF occurrence records — read 2026-08-05

Chapter 01

Overview

The common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is a medium-sized passerine native to temperate Europe and the Palearctic east to western Mongolia. It has been introduced as an invasive species to Australia, New Zealand, North America, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji, and the IUCN lists it among the world's 100 worst invasive species. The world population, estimated at 310 million in 2004, is not thought to be falling significantly. In its northern range the story is different. Major declines have been recorded since 1980 in Sweden, Finland and the Baltic states, driven by intensive farming and fewer grassland invertebrates for the chicks. The starling has bred in northern Sweden since 1850; the Swedish population was put at just over 400,000 pairs in 2018, and it has been red-listed as vulnerable in Sweden since 2015.

Chapter 02

Identification

A stocky bird 19–23 cm long, with a 31–44 cm wingspan and a weight of 58–101 g. The plumage is iridescent black glossed purple or green, spangled with white especially in winter; the spots wear off towards the breeding season. The bill is black in winter and yellow in summer, and the legs are pinkish-red. Juveniles are plain grey-brown. It is told from thrushes and small crows by its short tail, sharp blade-like bill, round-bellied shape and strong legs. In flight the pointed, triangular wings are distinctive, and on the ground it walks with a waddling gait rather than hopping. The song is a long, varied chatter full of whistles, clicks and mimicry.

Chapter 03

Behaviour

Starlings are highly gregarious, especially in autumn and winter, gathering in murmurations — dense, shape-shifting flocks thought to defend against falcons and sparrowhawks — and in roosts of up to 1.5 million birds in city centres, woods and reedbeds. In south-western Jutland more than a million birds gather in spring before the northern Scandinavian birds leave, a spectacle known locally as sort sol, black sun. The starling is largely insectivorous, probing short grass for invertebrates, but takes seeds, fruit and food waste too; flocks roller-feed, the birds at the back flying over to the front. It nests in a cavity, lays four or five glossy pale blue eggs and usually raises one or two broods, only one north of 48°N.

Chapter 04

Hunting

Starlings can damage orchards and vineyards — grapes, cherries, olives — and pull up sprouting grain, so they have long been controlled, though with limited lasting effect. In Spain the species is hunted commercially as food and has a closed season; in France it is classed as a pest that may be killed for most of the year; in Great Britain it is protected. In the United States it is exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and 1.7 million were poisoned, shot or trapped there in 2008. On Gotland the starling was a popular food in the latter half of the 19th century. In Sweden the stare has no open season. The hunting ordinance's bilaga 4 lets it, like the blackbird, be shot all year inside a garden or other commercial berry or fruit growing facility and within 200 metres of it, where that is needed to prevent damage there.

Field data

Tracks

A photograph of real sign left by Common starling. Prints vary with gait, ground and how long they have been there — treat this as one example, not a template.

Track photo:Texas Bird Family CC BY

On the table

Meat & cooking

Table grade 3 of 53/5

Sold as meat in a legal market
Has a named traditional dish
Published way to handle and cook it
Eaten in more than one country
No known health advisory

Sources

Sources: Common starling — Wikipedia, Stare — Wikipedia (svenska), Jaktförordning (1987:905) — Sveriges riksdag — read 2026-10-29

Corvus frugilegus

Same order (Passeriformes)

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