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The large size of flocks can also cause problems . Common starlings may be sucked into aircraft jet engines , one of the worst instances of this being an incident in Boston in 1960 , when sixty @-@ two people died after a turboprop airliner flew into a flock and plummeted into the sea at Winthrop Harbor .
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Starlings ' droppings can contain the fungus Histoplasma capsulatum , the cause of histoplasmosis in humans . At roosting sites this fungus can thrive in accumulated droppings . There are a number of other infectious diseases that can potentially be transmitted by common starlings to humans , although the potential for the birds to spread infections may have been exaggerated .
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= = = Control = = =
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Because of the damage they do , there have been attempts to control the numbers of both native and introduced populations of common starlings . Within the natural breeding range , this may be affected by legislation . For example , in Spain , this is a species hunted commercially as a food item , and has a close season , whereas in France , it is classed as a pest , and the season in which it may be killed covers the greater part of the year . In the UK , the common starling may be killed at any time of year . This species is migratory , so birds involved in control measures may have come from a wide area and breeding populations may not be greatly affected . In Europe , the varying legislation and mobile populations mean that control attempts may have limited long @-@ term results . Non @-@ lethal techniques such as scaring with visual or auditory devices have only a temporary effect in any case .
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Huge urban roosts in cities can create problems due to the noise and mess made and the smell of the droppings . In 1949 , so many birds landed on the clock hands of London 's Big Ben that it stopped , leading to unsuccessful attempts to disrupt the roosts with netting , repellent chemical on the ledges and broadcasts of common starling alarm calls . An entire episode of The Goon Show in 1954 was a parody of the futile efforts to disrupt the large common starling roosts in central London .
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Where it is introduced , the common starling is unprotected by legislation , and extensive control plans may be initiated . Common starlings can be prevented from using nest boxes by ensuring that the access holes are smaller than the 1 @.@ 5 in ( 38 mm ) diameter they need , and the removal of perches discourages them from visiting bird feeders .
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Western Australia banned the import of common starlings in 1895 . New flocks arriving from the east are routinely shot , while the less cautious juveniles are trapped and netted . New methods are being developed , such as tagging one bird and tracking it back to establish where other members of the flock roost . Another technique is to analyse the DNA of Australian common starling populations to track where the migration from eastern to western Australia is occurring so that better preventive strategies can be used . By 2009 , only 300 common starlings were left in Western Australia , and the state committed a further A $ 400 @,@ 000 in that year to continue the eradication programme .
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In the United States , common starlings are exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act , which prohibits the taking or killing of migratory birds . No permit is required to remove nests and eggs or kill juveniles or adults . Research was undertaken in 1966 to identify a suitable avicide that would both kill common starlings and would readily be eaten by them . It also needed to be of low toxicity to mammals and not likely to cause the death of pets that ate dead birds . The chemical that best fitted these criteria was DRC @-@ 1339 , now marketed as Starlicide . In 2008 , the United States government poisoned , shot or trapped 1 @.@ 7 million birds , the largest number of any nuisance species to be destroyed . In 2005 , the population in the United States was estimated at 140 million birds , around 45 % of the global total of 310 million .
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= = = In science and culture = = =
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Common starlings may be kept as pets or as laboratory animals . Austrian ethologist Konrad Lorenz wrote of them in his book King Solomon 's Ring as " the poor man 's dog " and " something to love " , because nestlings are easily obtained from the wild and after careful hand rearing they are straightforward to look after . They adapt well to captivity , and thrive on a diet of standard bird feed and mealworms . Several birds may be kept in the same cage , and their inquisitiveness makes them easy to train or study . The only disadvantages are their messy and indiscriminate defecation habits and the need to take precautions against diseases that may be transmitted to humans . As a laboratory bird , the common starling is second in numbers only to the domestic pigeon .
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The common starling 's gift for mimicry has long been recognised . In the medieval Welsh Mabinogion , Branwen tamed a common starling , " taught it words " , and sent it across the Irish Sea with a message to her brothers , Bran and Manawydan , who then sailed from Wales to Ireland to rescue her . Pliny the Elder claimed that these birds could be taught to speak whole sentences in Latin and Greek , and in Henry IV , William Shakespeare had Hotspur declare " The king forbade my tongue to speak of Mortimer . But I will find him when he is asleep , and in his ear I 'll holler ' Mortimer ! ' Nay I 'll have a starling shall be taught to speak nothing but Mortimer , and give it to him to keep his anger still in motion . "
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Mozart had a pet common starling which could sing part of his Piano Concerto in G Major ( KV . 453 ) . He had bought it from a shop after hearing it sing a phrase from a work he wrote six weeks previously , which had not yet been performed in public . He became very attached to the bird and arranged an elaborate funeral for it when it died three years later . It has been suggested that his A Musical Joke ( K. 522 ) might be written in the comical , inconsequential style of a starling 's vocalisation . Other people who have owned common starlings report how adept they are at picking up phrases and expressions . The words have no meaning for the starling , so they often mix them up or use them on what to humans are inappropriate occasions in their songs . Their ability at mimicry is so great that strangers have looked in vain for the human they think they have just heard speak .
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Common starlings are trapped for food in some Mediterranean countries . The meat is tough and of low quality , so it is casseroled or made into p芒t茅 . One recipe said it should be stewed " until tender , however long that may be " . Even when correctly prepared , it may still be seen as an acquired taste .
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