“Mortimer!”

A brand new Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) displays gray plumage and bottomless appetite. Right now, these recently fledged birds are hopping after their parents on the ground, demanding food. It’s early enough in the year that this bird’s parents could certainly have another brood, if not two more. This is one of the reasons this Eurasian-origin species spread from an introduction of 100 birds — released in Central Park in two batches in 1890-91 by a damn fool who thought the New World should be blessed with all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare — to cover the continent.The adult, here foraging in the foreground, looks oddly smaller. Might be metaphoric of parenting…

Cf. Henry IV, Part I, Act 1 Scene 3.