Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird

Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird - Paperback

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Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird
  • Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird
Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird - Paperback

Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird - Paperback

by Mike Stark
$24.95
$24.95

Book Overview

by Mike Stark (Author)

Named a 2025Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Fourth Place for the Arizona Authors Association Literary Award

Has there ever been a more hated bird than the European starling? Let loose in New York City's Central Park by a misguided aristocrat, the starlings were supposed to help curb insect outbreaks and add to the tuneful choir of other songbirds. Rather than staying put, the dark and speckled starlings marched across the continent like a conquering army. In less than sixty years, they were in every state in the contiguous United States and their numbers topped two hundred million. Cities came under siege; crops buckled beneath their weight. Public sentiment quickly soured.

A bitter, baffling, and sometimes comical war on starlings ensued. Weapons included dynamite, guns, bounties, fake owls, real owls, rubber snakes, balloons, itching powder, and greased building ledges. Still, artists and scientists marveled at their undulating aerial formations, which seemed equal parts poetry and mathematics. Keen listeners recognized the starling as one of the world's great vocal mimics, imitating everything from fellow birds and cell phones to barking dogs, car alarms, and TV commercials. And then there were their undeniable skills of adaptation and survival. What if there was more to these stubborn villains than once thought?

Mike Stark's Starlings is a first-of-its-kind history of starlings in America, an oddball, love-hate story at the intersection of human folly, ornithology, and one bird's tenacious will to endure.

Author Biography

Mike Stark is a longtime journalist and author. His previous nonfiction books include the award-winning Chasing the Ghost Bear: On the Trail of America's Lost Super Beast (Bison Books, 2022) and Wrecked in Yellowstone: Greed, Obsession, and the Untold Story of Yellowstone's Most Infamous Shipwreck. His first novel, The Derelict Light (Bison Books), was published in 2023. He is the creative director for the Center for Biological Diversity and lives in Tucson, Arizona.

Number of Pages: 272
Dimensions: 0.65 x 8.89 x 6.18 IN
Illustrated: Yes
Publication Date: March 01, 2025
ISBN9781496242020
Author Mike Stark
PublisherBison Books
GenreHobbies & interests, Education, and History
FormatPaperback
PublishedMarch 2025
LanguageENG- English
Pages272
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

History Nature Nonfiction Science

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About Mike Stark

Mike Stark is a longtime journalist and author. His previous nonfiction books include the award-winning Chasing the Ghost Bear: On the Trail of America's Lost Super Beast (Bison Books, 2022) and Wrecked in Yellowstone: Greed, Obsession, and the Untold Story of Yellowstone's Most Infamous Shipwreck. His first novel, The Derelict Light (Bison Books), was published in 2023. He is the creative director for the Center for Biological Diversity and lives in Tucson, Arizona.

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