Lemoyne Star

 

Starlings are one of the most common birds in America, but they’re actually a harmful and invasive species here. As the story goes, a man named Eugene Schieffelin – amateur ornithologist and Shakespeare lover – decided in 1890 to introduce all the birds the bard mentioned to this continent, beginning with the starling. It’s a quirky tale, and over the years it’s been repeated many times, by some very reputable sources. But it isn’t true. Yes, there was a New Yorker named Eugene Schieffelin, and he did import about a hundred starlings and released them in Central Park. But he was actually one of many who tried this, and there’s absolutely no evidence any of them were motivated by the works of William Shakespeare. Ecology was barely a thing in 1890; the term was only invented a decade earlier. No one imagined the aggressive, tenacious starling would outcompete many native species here and drive them to extinction.