Starlings - Bah!

Starlings–as any birder knows–are a non-native or “introduced” species, and as such many serious birders do not hold the Starling in high regard.

Site and Date of Introduction: European Starlings were first introduced to the United States in 1890. Rumor has it that one hundred starlings were released in Central Park in hopes that all of the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works would become established

But now, I might have to reevaluate my earlier perceptions because the darn things can understand grammar:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The simplest grammar, long thought to be one of the skills that separate man from beast, can be taught to a common songbird, new research suggests.

Starlings learned to differentiate between a regular birdsong "sentence" and one containing a clause or another sentence of warbling, according to a study in Thursday's journal Nature.

Starlings - Yech!