A medium-sized songbird with dark feathers that often gather in large flocks and make loud chattering sounds.
From Old English 'stær' (starling) plus the diminutive suffix '-ling.' The bird's name likely comes from its 'staring' appearance with speckled plumage, or possibly from an old Germanic root related to stars.
Starlings are so famous for gathering in massive coordinated flocks that scientists use them to study how thousands of individuals move together without a leader—they're living examples of emergent behavior and self-organization in nature.
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