Identifier: economicvalueofs868kalm (find matches)
Title: Economic value of the starling in the United States
Year: 1921 (1920s)
Authors: Kalmbach, E. R. (Edwin Richard), 1884- Gabrielson, Ira Noel, 1889-
Subjects: Birds Starlings
Publisher: Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture
Contributing Library: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library
Digitizing Sponsor: U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Library

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a mile to commence feeding, and from5 to 7 oclock each morning could be found in almost the samelocality—an abandoned field. From here they worked in a well-de-fined circle, appearing at 4 oclock in the afternoon in an orchardthree-quarters of a mile north of the roost and feeding there and in thesurrounding fields until going to the trees for the night. In October or Xovember the starlings voluntarily abandon thesetree roosts and resort to church towers, barns, or other biiildings forshelter. Here they gather nightly until spring, when the flocks arebroken up by the mating impulse. A local estimate of the numberof birds in such a roost in a church tower in Xorwalk. Conn., variedfrom 10,000 to a million. but an approximate count revealed thefact that not more than 1,000 birds were roosting there in April. 1916. Although the starling remains in some numbers throughout thebreeding range during the winter, it exhibits a certain migratory Bui. 868, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture. Plate II,
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Starlings at Hackensack, N J., Roost. Photograph taken at about sundown while most of the birds were singing. A few momentslater these starlings, along with hundreds of others, sailed out over a near-by marsh, wherethey roosted among cat-tails in company with many red-winged blackbirds. ECONOMIC VALUE OF THE STARLING. 13 movement. All the birds in one locality collect into a single roost,but in addition to this there is a large increase in the flocks along theseacoast and a considerable movement southward from the breed-ing area. For three years a varying number of starlings appearedin a fall roost in Washington, D. C, before breeding birds were firstfound in 1917. Other localities south of the breeding range havealso reported wintering flocks for several years before the birdshave become permanent residents. ECONOMIC STATUS IN OTHER COUNTRIES.3 While the behavior of the starling in its native home and in coun-tries to which it has been introduced can not be interpreted as acertain in

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