Proceedings of the Vertebrate Pest Conference

In Europe, starlings are widely distributed and comprise both resident and migrant populations. These cause various kinds of damage which varies with the crops grown in different European Economic Community (EEC) countries. Although EEC member states are governed by the same legislation on bird protection, each state interprets the Community legislation in its own national legislation. This leads to different national approaches to the prevention of starling damage, with little information exchange between member states. The establishment of an EEC (or wider) working group on bird pests is recommended to coordinate research and development.