 Common starlings can eat and damage fruit in orchards such as grapes , <unk> , olives , currants and tomatoes or dig up newly <unk> grain and sprouting crops . They may also eat animal feed and distribute seeds through their droppings . In eastern Australia , weeds like <unk> <unk> , <unk> and <unk> are thought to have been spread by common starlings . Agricultural damage in the US is estimated as costing about US $ 800 million annually . This bird is not considered to be as damaging to agriculture in South Africa as it is in the United States . 
