Birds vs. Tweets: Which sounds are you tuned into?

While walking in my neighborhood the other day, I heard a beautiful and astonishingly complex bird call. Glancing to my left, I spied a European Starling perched on a roof’s edge — its throat vibrating as it sang its tiny heart out. I stopped to appreciate its efforts. No one else seemed to notice. 

There were several people within listening distance of the starling but they gave no indication that they were aware of its existence. After a beat, the all-too-familiar sound of a Facebook Messenger notification pinged into the air. Every single person instantly reached for their phone to see if the message was for them.

After pigeons and sparrows, starlings are the birds I see most often in New York City. The song I mentioned above is a combination of "warbling, gurgling, chirruping and clicking noises," and these birds will often imitate many other species (animals as well as birds), along with man-made sounds like car alarms and yes, smartphones. 

A group of starlings is known by humans as a "constellation" or a "murmuration" or — tellingly — a "scourge" or a "filth" or a "vulgarity." Whatever term you may use, starling flocks often number in the tens of thousands.

Every European Starling in North America "descended from 100 birds released in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. A group dedicated to introducing America to all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works set the birds free." 

Thanks to this ill-advised idea, you can now find over 200 million European Starlings across much of North America… and therein lies the rub, e.g. the U.S. Department of Agriculture named the European Starling an invasive species because:

• They compete with “native species and destroy crops.” 

• Large flocks can "overwhelm with a large scale buildup of feces where the uric acid content causes corrosion to stone, metal, and masonry."

• A large number of starling droppings can “open a company up to slip and fall liability if not properly cleaned up. Many companies also retain significant cleanup and maintenance costs due to starling problems.”

• They have often been labeled a "health risk."

I don't know about you, but I'd like to live in a world where a resilient mimic of a bird is valued above stone, metal, masonry… and notifications. And I’d really like social media and smartphone culture (contrary to what your news feed tells you) to be what’s identified as "invasive" and a "health risk.”