If you farm anywhere in North America, the European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) has probably already cost you money. These birds pour into feedlots and orchards in flocks that can top 100,000, strip the most nutritious feed out of a ration, foul what’s left with droppings, and move on. Older USDA-cited estimates put the damage to U.S. agriculture at roughly $800 million a year.
Here’s the part to know before you do anything else: starlings are one of the few birds you’re legally allowed to deal with yourself. They’re an invasive species, and along with House Sparrows and feral pigeons they sit on the federal list of birds the Migratory Bird Treaty Act doesn’t cover. That law protects almost every other wild bird in the country. So no federal authorization is required to trap them, shoot them, tear out their nests, or oil their eggs. State and local rules still apply, and a few control products are restricted, so it’s worth a quick check with your state wildlife agency before you start. More on that at the end.
Where they came from
Starlings are native to Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and western and central Asia. They got to North America the way a lot of invasive species do: on purpose. In 1890 a man named Eugene Schieffelin released about 60 of them in New York City’s Central Park, followed by roughly 40 more the next spring. The popular story is that he wanted to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare. Whether that’s the real reason or a tidy myth, the birds handled the rest themselves.
Within about 60 years they’d reached nearly every state and Canadian province. Estimates of the current North American population run from around 85 million to over 150 million depending on who’s counting. Either way, they’re one of the most abundant birds on the continent. Oddly enough, their numbers have actually dropped by roughly half since the 1970s, though you’d never guess it standing next to a winter roost.
What you’re dealing with
Up close, they’re stocky, medium-sized birds, about 2 to 3.5 ounces, with an oily black sheen, white speckling that fades toward summer, and a sharp yellow bill. Outside of breeding season they gather in huge flocks. Those swirling, shape-shifting clouds you’ve seen at dusk are murmurations, and a single roost can hold hundreds of thousands of birds.
What makes them so hard to shake is that they’re generalists in almost every sense. They’ll eat insects, worms, grubs, seeds, grain, fruit, and livestock feed. They probe the ground with their bills to reach bugs and seeds most birds can’t. They raise one or two broods a year, four to six eggs at a time, and they’ll nest in just about any cavity going, from a tree hollow to a gap in your barn siding. Some can even mimic other birds and human-made sounds. Adaptable is the polite word for it.
Crop damage
Fruit and grain take the worst of it. In orchards and vineyards they go after cherries, grapes, blueberries, and apples, and they’re wasteful about it. A bird will peck one piece of fruit, move to the next, and leave the first split open to rot or draw in mold and insects. A large flock can work through a vineyard or orchard in a matter of days. In grain fields they pull up young seedlings and eat the seed straight out of the ground.
Feedlots and dairies
This is where starlings do their most expensive work, especially from late fall through winter, when wild food gets scarce and flock sizes swell. Left alone, they’ll pick the high-protein, high-energy pieces and leave the roughage, so what your animals get is worth less than what you paid for it. Their droppings then contaminate the feed bunks, water troughs, and any grain in storage.
The costs stack up faster than you’d expect. USDA figures estimate that a flock of 1,000 starlings camped at a feedlot for 60 winter days will eat about 1.5 tons of cattle feed, a loss of $200 to $400 per thousand birds. And flocks don’t arrive a thousand at a time; feedlot roosts routinely hit tens of thousands. A survey of Washington dairies pinned average feed losses at about $55 per cow per year, with starlings named as the bird most often responsible, which runs into the millions of dollars across the state.
Disease
The feed bill is only part of it. Starlings are also good at moving disease around, and they do it without ever looking sick themselves. They pass it along two ways: through their droppings, and on their feet and bills as they move between feed, water, and manure. Some of these organisms can survive in contaminated feed and water for weeks.
Here’s the short list of pathogens researchers have tied to starlings:
| Pathogen | Main risk to |
|---|---|
| Salmonella | Livestock and humans |
| E. coli (including O157:H7) | Cattle and humans |
| Campylobacter jejuni | Livestock and humans |
| Transmissible gastroenteritis (TGE) | Swine |
| Newcastle disease | Poultry |
| Histoplasmosis | Humans (a fungus that grows in droppings) |
| West Nile virus | Humans and wildlife |
Damage to buildings and equipment
Then there’s the damage to the buildings themselves. Starling nests packed into cavities, gutters, machinery, and vents are a genuine fire risk. The material is dry and flammable, and the birds stack new nests on old ones season after season. Their droppings are acidic enough to wear away paint, roofing, and metal over time, and heavy roosting clogs gutters and drainpipes. Those droppings can also carry ticks and mites onto your property.
Crowding out native birds
Starlings are aggressive competitors for nesting cavities, and native birds usually come out on the losing end. Bluebirds, purple martins, woodpeckers, and wood ducks all get evicted. A starling will take over an occupied hole, destroy the eggs, and kill nestlings to claim it. They also help spread invasive plants by passing seeds in their droppings. It’s worth saying they aren’t purely villains ecologically, since they eat plenty of crop pests too, but on a working farm the damage outweighs the help.
What actually works
Because starlings aren’t federally protected, you have a lot of room to act. The one thing to understand up front is that no single method holds up on its own. Starlings are smart and they habituate fast. A propane cannon that scatters them in October is background noise by November. The operations that get real results rotate several tactics and pair scaring with exclusion and, where it’s warranted, direct removal.
Non-lethal options
- Exclusion is the most durable fix. Netting over high-value crops, fruit, and feed storage physically keeps birds out, and sealing building gaps larger than an inch stops them nesting in the first place.
- Scare tactics (propane cannons, recorded distress calls, pyrotechnics) work if you keep moving them around and changing them up before the birds catch on.
- Visual deterrents like Mylar tape, predator kites, scare-eye balloons, and lasers add to the pressure, though starlings see through static decoys pretty quickly.
- Falconry, using trained hawks or falcons, is one of the more reliable ways to move a stubborn flock, since a live predator isn’t a threat they can get used to.
- Feed and habitat management helps on the margins. Tighten up feeding schedules, cut down on standing water, clear roosting trees and brush near your fields, and where you can, use feed that’s coarser or pelleted beyond what starlings handle easily.
- Taste repellents such as methyl anthranilate, which is basically artificial grape flavoring, can discourage feeding when sprayed on crops.
Lethal control (watch the rules here)
- Shooting works best against small numbers and as a way to back up your scaring efforts, since it makes the threat more believable to the flock.
- Trapping can remove birds in bulk. Decoy traps based on the Australian crow trap design are among the most effective; you keep a few live starlings inside as bait and check often so you can release any non-target birds you catch.
- Avicides are the heavy option, and they’re regulated. DRC-1339 (sold as Starlicide) is USDA-approved for use at roosts and feedlots, and Avitrol is used to frighten flocks by disorienting a few birds. Both are Restricted Use Pesticides, so in practice you’ll usually be working with USDA Wildlife Services or a certified applicator rather than buying them off a shelf.
- Egg oiling and nest removal slow down breeding. A coat of corn oil on the eggs keeps them from hatching, and physically pulling nests out breaks the cycle.
The USDA’s Wildlife Services program, part of APHIS, runs a lot of starling control work and can advise on it directly. Their standing recommendation lands on the same theme as everything above: combine harassment, exclusion, and targeted removal instead of betting everything on one approach. And before you start, a five-minute call to your state’s Wildlife Services office or state agriculture department is time well spent. Federal law gives you a green light on starlings, but states and localities can still have their own rules on shooting, trapping, and pesticide use.