By Laura Remson
Rome's Trastevere has changed in the last few weeks. Maybe you’ve noticed. If not, well, sniff around. You’ll find out about it.
I’m talking about birds, lots of birds. European Starlings to be exact. They bring a certain something to the neighborhood. Just don’t out out a welcome mat for them just yet.
Even so, the birds can’t be that bad. Mozart had one as a pet. They are described as beautiful birds, with green and purple iridescent feathers that, as Jonathan Rosen of the New York Times will attest, can even, “occasionally bring down airplanes.”
At least we know these birds are eating well. During the day, they feed on olives in the countryside surrounding Rome. They get back home early, right around twilight, unlike most Italians. It is right about the time I get out of class on Tuesday/Thursdays and right about rush hour.
Many tourists and first time viewers are fascinated by the starlings. Then “it” hits—the smell. As someone who was forced by a friend to watch Hitchcock’s The Birds as a child, and then made fun of for being afraid of birds, I’m not so fascinated.
“A bird pooped on my shoulder,” Said Ashley Crape, a junior sociology major from Connecticut, “Then while I was trying to get it off, another one got me on the head! I had to wear a scarf all night on my head. An Italian guy made fun of me because he thought I was pretending to be a saint.”
Sounds like double good luck, or bad luck, depending from what side of the line you are on. Just today, one got me on the way home from class. People stared at me on the tram.
There are two theories on why the birds have come to Trastevere in the last few years. One is that there are now trained falcons that are set off to hunt the starlings by Termini, so they moved to Trastevere.
The second, if not more plausible, is that officials have installed speakers that play owl sounds near the station. As the starling’s enemy, the owl sounds frighten the birds away to Trastevere.
As migratory birds, the starlings don’t stay in Rome all the time. But, thanks to global warming, they now have found the warmer Roman winters suitable, as opposed to where they once went; Sicily.
And it’s not like Rome is the only place dealing with the starlings. In 1890, a Shakespeare-enthusiast in New York City wanted every bird mentioned in Shakespeare’s works to live in North America. After releasing 100 of the European starlings in Central Park, the population is now estimated to about 200 million in North America.
So my friends, I leave you with a small poem. Birdie, birdie, in the sky. Why’d you do that to my eye? Tastes like sugar, looks like sap. Oh my gosh, it’s birdie…well you know the rest. And a word of advice if you are walking through Trastevere, carry an umbrella—even when it’s not raining.
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