When I first saw this group of birds on the ground near Hunt hall, I thought they were Grackles. However, when I took a closer look I noticed that they were smaller than Grackles and had yellowish beaks. I uploaded my photo and a description of the size and appearance of the birds to iNaturalist in hopes that someone could help me figure out what kind of bird I was looking at. I couldn’t get a very sharp photo because they were far away, but my description was good enough that someone identified the birds at European Starlings. I did some research about European Starlings and they looked and sounded exactly like the birds I saw. European Starlings are common in settled areas and they feed on the ground, often in lawns. I found out in my research that European Starlings were first brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century. The group wanted America to have every bird species that Shakespeare mentioned in his writings. Although at first it was a question of “to be or not to be?” as the species had trouble surviving in America, they are now thriving all over the North American continent.
Source: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/lifehistory
Observation: http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/5938723
