Starling Sturnus vulgaris

Widespread as a garden bird, there are more than 800,000 breedings pairs in the UK even though the population has declined by 89% since 1967.

With glossy, petrol-slicked, iridescent plumage, they are an entertaining garden addition.

Starlings form murmurations over their roosting sites. Some of the best-known sites in England are Fen Drayton in Cambridgeshire and Ham Wall in Somerset. One of the biggest roost sites in Europe can be found in the centre of Rome.

Roman augurs used the shape of starling murmurations to divine the mood of the gods, with some formations predicting divine approval.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge noted a murmuration from his carriage on 27 November 1799:

“Starlings in vast flights drove along like smoke, mist, or any thing misty without volition – now a circular area inclined in an Arc – now a Globe – now from complete Orb into an Elipse & Oblong.” Well-known mimics – but not just of other birds. Mozart bought a pet starling on 27 May 1784 and taught the bird to sing the third movement of his

Piano Concerto No 17 in G. He presided over a funeral service when it died three years later and recited a poem he composed: Here lies a dear fool

A little starling; in the prime Of his brief time.

He must feel death’s bitter pain. My heart is riven

Thinking of him.