We all know that it is illegal to hit birds now, even the most common sparrows.
Hitting birds is illegal
As one of the important components of the natural ecosystem, it plays a very good role in catching pests and so on.
In addition to not fighting birds, there are many people who will buy some ornamental birds to release, in fact, it is not a good thing to release animals at will.
If the release of aggressive animals can even cause big trouble, think of the tilapia and scavengers that flood the continent.
Such species invasions occur from time to time in the United States and Australia, which have a serious impact on the local ecological environment.
Flood of scavengers
Next, let's take a look at how, more than 100 years ago, someone released 100 birds, resulting in the Loss of $800 million a year in the United States.
Avid fans release starlings
Shakespeare, known as "Zeus on the Olympic Hill of Human Literature", left many works that have been handed down to the world.
In the plays he creates, he especially likes to use birds to express his emotions and make the plays more interesting.
There are more than 60 species of birds, including owls, larks, nightingales and starlings, of which starlings are the protagonists of today.
Shakespeare
It is a bird with the ability to imitate sounds, and can speak human language even after training.
In Shakespeare's play Henry IV, the starling is mentioned, and in the first act, Hodspo, son of the Count of Northon Poland, attempts to rebel against the king.
So he said, "No, I will raise a starling, teach it only the three words 'Mortimer' (the enemy of the king), and then give him this bird and let it stir his anger all day long." ”
Who would have thought that the starling, which appeared here for only a few seconds, would eventually sweep across U.S. airspace.
Talking birds
100 starlings were released one after another
Eugene Schifferin, who immigrated to the United States from Germany, was a big fan of Shakespeare and had always had a dream in his mind to bring the birds in Shakespeare's plays to the United States.
In 1890, he waited for an opportunity when Schifferin became president of the American Domestication Society, an association that aimed to enrich The American species diversity by introducing plants and birds from Old World Europe.
They used to introduce a lot of birds, and Kevin McGowan of Cornell University's Ornithology Lab said that many of the birds that were introduced did not survive at that time.
Introduction of birds
But among them, sparrows and European starlings have gradually squeezed the sky of the United States.
Schifferin first bought 60 starlings from Europe, but by winter he hadn't found a starling nest.
He thought none of the starlings survived, so the next year he went to Central Park and released 40 more.
What he did not expect was that the starlings were so aggressive that they had few natural predators in American airspace.
Over the past hundred years, these starlings have multiplied more and more.
The wires couldn't hold up
According to statistics, in 2004 the global population of European starlings was about 310 million, while in North America there were almost 200 million, the vast majority of which were in the United States.
This shows how powerful these European starlings are.
The terrible nature of biological invasion
These European starlings, which invaded the United States, became one of the strongest predators in the territorial airspace.
They are very strong omnivorous birds, almost can stuff food in the mouth, they will not let go, and the amount of food is still very large, almost a day to eat 7-23 grams of animal food, and 20-40 grams of plants.
Very edible European starling
This makes the European starling, despite its small size, weigh 50% more than other birds and are full of strong muscles.
It may not seem like 200 million birds are many, but they are a kind of group guy, which can no longer be said to be three or five groups together, but directly "woven" into a net in the air.
As a result, not only will they crowd out the habitats of native birds, because starlings will make nests in holes to protect their eggs from a better place to hatch, but there are not many such caves.
A European starling incubating an egg
It also occupies a large amount of food, and even eats farmers' crops and food for livestock.
All of them, many native birds are almost on the verge of extinction, such as the Purple Cliff Swallow, the Blue Robin and the Red-headed Woodpecker, whose populations are extremely declining.
It is understood that although Americans have done a lot of protection for crops, there are still many areas where crop yields have decreased by 17% in one year.
And many domestic animals, there is no way to stop starlings to eat their food, the key is that these livestock still eat high-quality feed with protein.
Eat crops
According to the farmer's reaction, every winter, when the starlings lack food, the cost of cattle feed is $84 per 1,000 European starlings, and this number continues to increase with the cost of feed.
Statistically, European starlings cause 800 million yuan in losses to American agriculture a year, so Americans hate these chirping starlings.
For decades, Americans have taken various actions to try to reduce starling populations.
The European starling that eats cattle
In 2012, the U.S. Department of Agriculture killed nearly 1.5 million starlings by shooting and trapping them, but in terms of their totals, it was nothing at all.
Starlings fly more like a disaster
As mentioned earlier, in addition to their excellent imitation ability, European starlings also like to live in groups, so they often perform a "starling flock flight" for almost 45 minutes.
It was an hour before sunset, and in the orange-yellow sunlight, they formed various phalanxes in the air, sometimes with a group of 750,000 starlings.
Starlings fly in flocks
If viewed from a distance, this group of dark starlings gathers together like an ink painting, but there is a great danger hidden in it.
The terrible thing about starlings flying in flocks
But if you stand close, it is simply a piece of black pressure.
One day in 2020, starlings flew in flocks over a parking lot in Houston, USA, chirping like joy in the air, circling from east to west, top to bottom.
And their feces, like rain, fell on the parking lot, and a glance at the past revealed a white, which can be said to have caused a huge psychological shadow to those car owners.
European starlings gather in the parking lot
In addition, starling flights also hinder aircraft travel.
In 2008, a plane crashed in the waters of the Indian Ocean, and the culprit was a flock of starlings.
At that time, the plane was in a clear sky, and the driving process was very stable, but before the pilot could react, a group of starlings went straight to the plane.
As a result, three of the plane's four engines went on strike because of the starling's rampage, causing the plane to crash into the sea.
On board, there were 3 crew members, 2 flight attendants, and 67 passengers.
Obstruct the flight of the aircraft
After the accident, only 10 people were rescued, while the remaining 62 people lost their lives in the accident, which can be said to be the biggest disaster in history caused by birds.
Why starlings are so concentrated
Regarding the strong sociality of starlings, ornithologists have specifically studied it.
Usually, social animals will generally create a huge vision in order to improve the probability of escape, so that some predators dare not easily approach, and the fish in the sea are often like this.
Increase the number of fish to escape
But experts say starlings fly in groups that don't stop there, because they fly in groups in autumn, winter, and early spring, and in the evening, which is close to their rest time.
So after research, these starlings may want to attract more starlings to sleep together by flying in groups.
Because in this time period, the temperature in the United States has dropped a lot, and starlings belong to smaller birds, the warmth of the feathers is not very good, and the rate of detempermia will be very fast, so a large number of groups can keep each other warm.
Birds are hot and hot
Today, the population of these starlings is already dwindling, with the exception of the United States, the rate of decline is even faster, but for the population, the impact is minimal.
It can be seen that the harm caused by invasive species to the local area, a species that is not originally native, often disturbs the local ecological balance, so people must pay attention to their properties when choosing to release some animals.