The European Starling is not native to North America. In the early 1890s Eugene Schieffelin, a member of a group that wanted to introduce all birds mentioned in Shakespeare’s writings to North America released about 100 starlings in New York City’s Central Park. There are now more than 200 million starlings across most of the continent!

In an effort to draw attention to this fact, environmental artist Brian Collier is teaching wild starlings to say "Schieffelin". The starling is a great mimic! Collier is trying to get friends, relatives, and visitors to his art shows and exhibits to call out the name to starlings everywhere.

"Basically this project is about teaching humans, not starlings", says Collier. 

You can read the Orion magazine article here:  http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/331