In 1890, a pharmacist released 80 birds in New York’s Central Park to honour Shakespeare; 136 years later, their descendants number about 93 million across North America

A few dozen birds released in New York City more than a century ago hardly sounds like the beginning of a continental transformation. Yet European Starlings went from those early Central Park introductions to one of North America’s most widespread birds, as per a report by AllAboutBirds and Space Daily.

The familiar story says the release was inspired by Shakespeare. But that part of the story is much less certain than the birds themselves. Modern historians have shown that the popular tale of Schieffelin wanting to introduce every bird from William Shakespeare's plays is likely a later fable, as per several reports.

What is clear is what happened afterward. The starlings survived, spread rapidly and eventually occupied almost every U.S. state and Canadian province. Their population reached an estimated 200 million at its 20th-century peak before falling substantially in recent decades.


And scientists now have another piece of the puzzle: their genes may help explain why these birds were so remarkably good at adjusting to life in new environments.

Did Shakespeare really inspire the starling release?

The story has been repeated for years. Eugene Schieffelin, a New York pharmacist and member of the American Acclimatization Society, supposedly wanted to introduce every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s works into America.

The European Starling appears only briefly in Henry IV, Part 1, and according to the popular version of events, that was enough for Schieffelin to bring the species to Central Park.

There is a documented part to the story. Schieffelin did release European Starlings in Central Park in the early 1890s. The first known introduction involved 80 birds in 1890, followed by another 60 in 1891. Those introductions became part of the history of the enormous starling population that later developed across North America, as per a report by Space Daily.

But the Shakespeare connection is harder to establish.

A 2021 investigation by literary scholars Lauren Fugate and John MacNeill Miller found no contemporary source showing that Schieffelin was carrying out a plan to introduce Shakespeare’s birds. Their research traced the popular explanation to a 1947 essay by naturalist Edwin Way Teale, written decades after Schieffelin’s death.

That distinction matters. The release is documented. The motivation behind it is far less certain.

How did 80 birds spread across a continent?

Whatever Schieffelin’s reasons were, the starlings did not remain confined to New York. They survived their first winter, multiplied and began spreading beyond the city. Before long, they reached the Midwest. By the 1940s, European Starlings had been recorded in nearly every U.S. state and Canadian province.

At their 20th-century peak, the continental population was estimated at about 200 million birds. Their success is partly connected to their flexibility. European Starlings are not as specialized in their diets as some other species, helping them live across a wide variety of environments.

But researchers wanted to know whether something deeper was happening.



A newly published genetic study examined starling populations from across the United States. The genomes were remarkably similar overall, yet scientists found genetic signatures associated with adaptation to differences in temperature and rainfall.

Arizona starlings showed the strongest evidence of adaptation to hot, dry conditions. Birds in the Pacific Northwest showed evidence of adjustment to cooler, wetter conditions.

Natalie Hofmeister, the study’s lead author and a PhD candidate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said:

“What I think is really cool is that the starlings in North America appear to have adapted to different conditions across the range. So, it wasn’t just that they reproduced really quickly, and then just kept reproducing. It’s that they specialized once they arrived in new areas.”

The researchers described this as “rapid local adaptation,” suggesting the birds were not simply spreading quickly but were also changing in response to the places they colonized.

How quickly can a bird adapt?

That may be the most surprising part of the starling story.

The genetic changes identified among North American populations appeared within roughly 130 years of the birds being introduced.

Hofmeister said:

“The amazing thing about the evolutionary changes among starling populations since they were introduced in North America is that the genetic changes happened in a span of just 130 years. For a long time we didn’t think that was possible—that it took millions of years for changes to take hold at the genetic level.”

The finding offers scientists a way to study how organisms respond when they suddenly find themselves in environments different from those in which their species evolved.

Dustin R. Rubenstein, an associate professor in evolution and environmental biology at Columbia University who was not involved in the study, said:

“This new study by Hofmeister and colleagues is an important first step in understanding why this species has been so successful in colonizing not only this continent, but also much of the world.”

Hofmeister’s continuing research also examines starling invasions in North America and Australia. Findings suggest the birds may have genetic characteristics that help them establish themselves across very different environments.

Are starlings still as successful as they once were?

There is an unexpected twist. Despite their extraordinary expansion, European Starlings in North America have declined by more than 50% since 1970. Their population has fallen from an estimated 166.2 million to roughly 85.1 million to 93 million in more recent estimates. The decline has changed the way their story looks.

Starlings remain controversial. As a non-native species, they can compete with native birds for valuable cavity-nesting sites. Large flocks can also cause millions of dollars in crop damage every year.

At the same time, Hofmeister considers them fascinating and beautiful birds, and their rapid adaptation makes them valuable subjects for understanding evolution.

Irby Lovette, Hofmeister’s advisor at the Cornell Lab and a coauthor of the study, put the larger scientific significance this way:

“Invasive species like these starlings can tell us something bigger about how nature works. The same process of adaptation to local conditions that we can see happening in these starlings underlies the regional diversity within so many other bird species. At some deeper level, this is exactly how biodiversity originates.”

The European Starling story, then, is more complicated than the familiar tale of a Shakespeare-loving New Yorker releasing birds in Central Park. The introduction happened. The explosive spread happened. The population reached extraordinary numbers.

And now, more than a century later, scientists are finding evidence that the birds did something else along the way: they adapted.

What began with 80 birds in Central Park became a continental population numbering tens of millions, while the genetic changes occurring within that population are giving researchers a closer look at how quickly nature can respond to a changing world.

FAQs

How many starlings were released in Central Park?

Eugene Schieffelin released 80 European Starlings in 1890, followed by another 60 in 1891.

How many European Starlings are in North America today?

Recent estimates in the supplied material put the North American population at roughly 85 million to 93 million birds.