Few invasive birds are as globally successful or as well-studied as the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Native to the Palaearctic, the starling has been a prolific invader in North and South America, southern Africa, Australia, and The Pacific Islands, while facing declines in excess of 50% in in some native regions. Starlings present an invaluable opportunity to test predictions about the evolutionary trajectory of invasive populations, and gain insight into genetic shifts in response to anthropogenic alteration and climate change. My research focuses primarily on the invasive European starling population in Australia and aims to investigate the genetics underlying their evolution, using a range of genomic approaches. Through historic museum sample sequencing, I examine single nucleotide polymorphism variations shifts between the native range and Australia, and find parallel selection on both continents, possibly resulting from common global selective forces such as exposure to pollutants and carbohydrate exposure. I further examine matched genetic, morphological, and environmental data to reveal patterns of heritability and plasticity across ecologically significant phenotypic traits, revealing that elevation, as well as rainfall and temperature variability plays an important role in shaping morphology and genetics. Finally, I investigated patterns of structural variants, to uncover evolutionarily significant large-scale genetic variants across a global data set, and more specifically characterise their role in rapid starling adaptation across the entirety of the Australian range. Overall, my research seeks to better understand mechanisms and patterns of genetic change within this species, which may be used to inform invasion or native range management. More broadly, this evolutionary research into the starling provide an important perspective on the role of rapid evolution in invasive species persistence, and the global pressures that may shape range shifts and evolution across many similar avian taxa.