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A little over one hundred years ago, a man brought several cages of birds from Europe to be released in New York City’s Central Park. He wanted North America to have the experience of the types of birds that Shakespeare wrote about. Consequently, he single-handedly introduced some of our most invasive bird species to the continent. Amongst them is the European Starling.

There is a parasite that lives inside this Starling that lays its eggs in its intestines. The eggs travel out through the birds feces, and our sweet little roly poly pill bug feasts on it. The egg hatches inside the bug, and once it reaches its larvae stage will literally zombify the bug, causing it to venture out into bright open spaces (while its natural habitat is cool dark places where it eats rotting vegetation). Now exposed, the starlings can locate and eat the bugs, and once ingested, the parasite matures into adulthood inside its final preferred host, where it can then lay eggs inside the intestines of the bird and the entire cycle begins again.

This is the story of lightning speed adaptation within lightning speed adaptation. The European Starlings now cover the North American map. Their migration is specific and most remain in North America. Those above 40° (latitude of New York City) travel south and these are the beautiful starling murmuration displays we see in our skies.

These non native birds are one of the Parasitic New World Birds species. Amongst them are the Cuckoo and the Cowbird. They will lay their eggs in the nests of other birds and that is its own story entirely. No matter how they are born and raised, they will grow up and repeat this cycle.

Lightning speed adaptation is a testament to the resilience and evolution of digestive enzymes, and that’s as far as we can draw inward to understand our biological driving factors. We are mere puppets for the spirits of survival and their many fascinating stories.
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Handmade sacred heart of clay, female European Starling feather patterns in graphite, painted starling feathers on watercolor paper, chiffon, handmade frame.

2020
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