The Starling: A Biography

Following his bestselling biographies of some of our favourite birds, including The Robin, The Wren and The Owl – author and naturalist Stephen Moss now turns his attention to an incredible bird that lives on nearly every continent and, despite seeming plain at first glance, takes our breath away when they take to the skies in huge flocks – the Starling. Though it is easy to overlook a solitary starling, even with its beautiful iridescent plumage, when they come together in the thousands they take to the skies in awe-inspiring swooping flocks called murmurations. Starlings live almost all over the world – they’re are common bird throughout Europe and the Palearctic to western Mongolia, and are recent residents of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United States, Mexico, Argentina, South Africa and Fiji, migrating seasonally as far North as Scandinavia. Discover how their love of fruit gets them into trouble, how they can help farmers by eating insects, how their skill for mimicry has inspired centuries of folklore and how they were brought to new continents by one man’s passion for Shakespeare.