Mozart's starling

On May 27th, 1784, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart met a flirtatious little starling in a Viennese shop who sang an improvised version of the theme from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G major. Sensing a kindred spirit in the plucky young bird, Mozart bought him and took him home to be a family pet. For three years, the starling lived with Mozart, influencing his work and serving as his companion, distraction, consolation, and muse.

Two centuries later, starlings are reviled by even the most compassionate conservationists. A nonnative, invasive species, they invade sensitive habitats, outcompete local birds for nest sites and food, and decimate crops. A seasoned birder and naturalist, Lyanda Lynn Haupt is well versed in the difficult and often strained relationships these birds have with other species and the environment. But after rescuing a baby starling of her own, Haupt found herself enchanted by the same intelligence and playful spirit that had so charmed her favorite composer.

In Mozart's Starling , Haupt explores the unlikely and remarkable bond between one of history's most cherished composers and one of earth's most common birds. The intertwined stories of Mozart's beloved pet and Haupt's own starling provide an unexpected window into human-animal friendships, music, the secret world of starlings, and the nature of creative inspiration. A blend of natural history, biography, and memoir, Mozart's Starling is a tour de force that awakens a surprising new awareness of our place in the world.

Author Notes

Lyanda Lynn Haupt has created and directed educational programs for Seattle Audubon, worked in raptor rehabilitation in Vermont, and as a seabird researcher for the Fish and Wildlife Service in the remote tropical Pacific. She is the author of Pilgrim on the Great Bird Continent and Rare Encounters with Ordinary Birds (winner of the 2002 Washington State Book Award).

Her writing has appeared in Image , Open Spaces , Wild Earth , Conservation Biology Journal , Birdwatcher's Digest , and the Prairie Naturalist . She lives in West Seattle with her husband and daughter.

Reviews (3)

Kirkus Review

A bird lover discovers the joys of living with a starling.One day, glimpsing a gathering of starlings outside her window, bird-watcher and naturalist Haupt (The Urban Bestiary: Encountering the Everyday Wild, 2013, etc.) happened to recall that Mozart kept a pet starling, a choice that seemed to her extraordinary. Starlings, she reveals, are among the most "reviled" birds: invasive, aggressive, omnivorous, and destructive. Some call them "rats with wings" and would happily obliterate the entire species. They oust other birds from their nests, voraciously eat food crops and feed from cattle and swine troughs, and cause $800 million in agricultural damage each year. Orphan starlings are killed if brought to animal shelters, which is how Haupt happened to raise one herself. Weaving together cheerful memoir, natural history, and biography, the author celebrates her "insatiably social" pet starling, Carmen; investigates Mozart's experience with his avian "companion, distraction, consolation, and muse"; and offers intriguing details about starling behavior. Mozart discovered his starling in a bird shop in Vienna, when it apparently was able to sing a motif from one of his concertos. Fascinated by this bit of lore, Haupt has discovered that starlings, rare among birds, are able to mimic sounds. Carmen, for example, has a repertoire of 15 phrases, including "Hi, honey," and "C'mere, honey!" Haupt is completely entranced by her feathered friend, allowing her to fly freely around the house, perch on her shoulder or in her hair, and scamper across her fingers as she writes at the computer, making changes to documents and emails that Haupt thinks is evidence of her intelligence. Of course, the bird poses some problems: she swallows things that could kill her (a rubber band, a garbanzo bean), and she poops constantly, everywhere. Like all birds that fly a lot, starlings need to eliminate waste that can weigh them down. Haupt provides visitors with "poop shirts." Linguists, audiologists, ornithologists, music historians, and Mozart's many biographers contribute to this lively investigation of a small wild bird. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

*Starred Review* Starlings are probably the most reviled bird in North America. Introduced from England in the 1890s, they have since spread across the continent, displacing native birds and causing millions of dollars in crop damage every year. But when naturalist and author Haupt (Urban Bestiary, 2013) remembered that Mozart kept a pet starling, a not-uncommon practice in eighteenth-century Europe, she embarked on a journey to follow the tale of the famed composer and his pet bird. Realizing that to fully understand how Mozart could be influenced by his starling, as recent examinations of his music have shown, she needed to live with a starling herself. Thus begin the parallel tales of Carmen (Latin for song) and Mozart's starling, who Haupt refers to as Star. Although the author hand-reared Carmen, Mozart purchased the adult Star from a bird dealer after hearing the bird sing the motif from his Piano Concerto no. 17 in G. This hard-to-put-down, charming blend of science, biography, and memoir illuminating the little-known story of the composer and his beloved bird is enlivened by the immediacy of Haupt's tales of Carmen, and brimming with starling information, travelogues, and historical details about Mozart's Vienna.--Bent, Nancy Copyright 2017 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Haupt (The Urban Bestiary) intertwines the story of composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's starling with her own story of living with one of America's most hated birds, the starling. Mozart discovered his bird in a 1780s Vienna pet shop singing a tune from his latest concerto; when it died, he arranged an elaborate ceremony complete with dramatic elegy. This book is part history (the origin of North American starlings), part natural history (the habits and psychology of starlings, from both personal experience and the scientific literature), and part whimsical imagining of how the bird might have lived within the busy Mozart household. Along the way, Haupt discusses the changing view of pets in -Mozart's time, the nature of language (the starling as a challenge to linguist Noam Chomsky), Mozart's A Musical Joke as starling-inspired, a consideration of whether birdsong is music, and the meaning of three funerals: that of Mozart's father, his starling, and -the composer himself. VERDICT This entertaining, well-written, and thought-provoking examination is highly recommended to pet owners (especially bird enthusiasts), ornithologists, and lovers of classical music, especially Mozart's works.-Bruce R. -Schueneman, Texas A&M Univ. Lib., Kingsville © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Prelude A Plague of Inspiration	p. 3
1 The Starling of Seattle	p. 15
2 Mozart and the Musical Thief	p. 26
3 Uninvited Guest, Unexpected Wonder	p. 46
4 What the Starling Said	p. 76
5 The Starling of Vienna	p. 97
6 How the Starling Knew	p. 129
7 Chomsky's Starling	p. 147
Interlude: The Heart of Time for Birds and Mozart	p. 172
8 Birds of a Feather	p. 177
9 Mozart's Ear and the Music of the Spheres	p. 213
Finale Three Funerals and a Flight of Fancy	p. 237
Coda	p. 264
Acknowledgments	p. 265
Bibliography	p. 267

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