I've just always liked these birds for some reason. In the fall you can see some really big flocks of them gathering about Toronto, often near bridges and overpasses. They're 'European' because they aren't native to North America...in fact all the starlings here descend from about one hundred that were released in Central Park in the 1890s as part of a Shakespeare festival. They idea was to introduce all the birds mentioned by the Great Bard into the New World, which seems wacky, but that's what they were trying to do.
There are now about two hundred million starlings in North America and they can be found from Mexico to Alaska. They must have some very crowded family reunions.
This is actually the non-breeding plumage of the starling and it's more striking than the breeding phase, which is unusual.
