Mark Freeland wrote:

>I have a mind to purchase a pellet gun and take care of a few of these
>undesirable invaders next season, but then that may not be in the true
>spirit of birding.

I guess by now people have cleared up the mistaken identity of starling vs.
cowbird, and Michael did a fine job of pointing the finger where it should
be pointed, but I want to add that this could be a textbook example of the
kind of prejudice (no offense to you, Mark) that accrues to other organisms
because of *our* value judgments. Most of us abhor prejudice against race,
sex, ethnic group, etc., but we don't even question the prejudices we
carry against particular kinds of plants and animals. In this case, I
wouldn't be surprised if the progression went (a) everybody knows starlings
are bad birds, (b) birds that lay their eggs in other birds' nests are bad,
and (c) there's a cute little warbler feeding a big ugly brown bird, must
be a starling.

Just to add to Michael's posting, please remember that starlings aren't
villains any more than cowbirds are. In the last analysis, *we're* always
the enemy--Walt Kelly (through the mouth of Pogo) had it exactly right.
When interviewed about starlings, I was quoted in the Seattle Times as
saying "kill 'em all," but this isn't from prejudice, it's from the
realization that we may at times wish to employ drastic measures to undo
some of the havoc we've wrought on nature--in this case, introducing and
subsidizing starlings, to the detriment of some native species. I actually
like starlings, consider them fascinating birds, but I wouldn't blink if
someone suggested wiping them from the face of this continent.

Cowbirds are a whole nother story; they're native species just trying to
get along, but we've made the world better for them and thus worse for a
lot of other species. How to undo this? I dunno. Cowbird control
programs have killed them by the hundreds of thousands in areas where they
parasitize Endangered species such as Kirtland's Warbler and Black-capped
Vireo. I don't know if anyone has studied reproductive success in the
common birds in those areas where they are "controlled" to see if it made a
difference to those species.

Also a historical point. "Birding" originally meant going out hunting for
birds, so taking a pellet gun to a starling is indeed in the true spirit of
birding. The word was co-opted by birdwatchers when birdwatching became a
sport, not too different from the original birding except resulting in a
tick mark in a box rather than a juicy bird on the plate.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416