Starling - Distribution, Habitat and Movements

Distribution, Habitat and Movements

The starlings inhabit a wide range of habitats from the Arctic Circle to the Equator, in fact the only habitat they do not typically occupy is the driest sandy deserts. The family is naturally absent from the Americas and from large parts of Australia, but is present over the majority of Europe, Africa and Asia. The genus Aplonis has also spread widely across the islands of the Pacific reaching Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia (in addition one species in the genus Mino has reached the Solomon Islands), it is also a species of this genus that is the only starling found in northern Australia.

Asian species are most common in evergreen forests; 39 species found in Asia are predominately forest birds as opposed to 24 found in more open or human modified environments. In contrast to this African species are more likely to be found in open woodlands and savannah; 33 species are open area specialists compared to 13 true forest species. The high diversity of species found in Asia and Africa is not matched by Europe, which has one widespread (and very common) species and two more restricted species. The European Starling is both highly widespread and extremely catholic in its habitat, occupying most types of open habitat. Like many other starling species it has also adapted readily to human-modified habitat, including farmland, orchards, plantations and urban areas.

Some species of starling are migratory, either entirely, like the Shelley's Starling, which breeds in Ethiopia and northern Somalia and migrates to Kenya and southern Somalia, or the White-shouldered Starling, which is migratory in part of its range but is resident in others.

The European Starling was purposefully introduced to North America in 1890-1891 by the American Acclimatization Society, by an organization that decided all birds mentioned by William Shakespeare should be there. The bird had been mentioned in Henry IV, Part 1, and a hundred of them were released from New York's Central Park.