Gould described the Starling as 'quick and nimble in all its actions, pert and inquisitive'. On the ground, while searching for food it pried into every tuft of grass and every hole or crevice. In the spring, the Starling was equally at home building its untidy nest in the turret of a royal castle or on the roof of the humblest cottage. Other favoured nest sites were church eaves, house rain-pipes, decayed trees, or the deserted holes of woodpeckers.

Starlings go through many plumage changes from youth to maturity. The yellow-billed, brilliantly speckled, adult birds in spring with their young brood are depicted on a Tulip tree 'which has now become naturalised in England'.

DISTRIBUTION: Breeds western and central Palaearctic between 71°N and 25°N. Winters within breeding range and south to north Africa and south Asia, east to central India and south China. Introduced to South Africa, Polynesia, Australia, New Zealand, North America, Bermuda, Jamaica, and Puerto Rica