What Are The “Shakespeare Birds” Of America?

In 1890-91, a well-intentioned Shakespeare society imported breeding pairs of every bird species mentioned in The Bard's writings and released them in New York City's Central Park. Some species did not survive to breed, while others thrived.
It is generally considered an extremely bad idea to introduce any alien species into an environment. Many aliens out compete existing species for food and nesting materials, resulting in the original species' decline. For this reason, many alien species are being eradicated in the U.S., with generally poor success.
The most infamous and successful of the Shakespeare birds was the European starling. In less than 100 years, it has spread to every corner of the continent, now numbering some 200 million individuals -- all descendents of the original 200 released in Central Park.
Another notorious Shakespeare invader is the house finch, actually a member of the Old World weaver-finch family. Its brazen foraging techniques and competitiveness have usurped many native species.

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