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Bird Sightings : Hebrides : Rose-coloured Starling

Rose-coloured Starling

(Rosy Starling, Rosy Pastor)

Sturnus roseus

 

Photography © Terry Fountain
Penerine - South Uist - Outer Hebrides (Western Isles)
19th May, 2007

 

Our Rose-coloured Starling photographs

Rose-coloured Starling	Rose-coloured Starling

 

• Rose-coloured Starling
• Sturnus roseus
• UK: Rare but regular migrant in small numbers in Spring & Autumn. (Usually less than 20 UK records annually)
• Breeds: Colonial breeder, using holes in buildings near open grassland. Eastern Europe to temperate Central & Southern Asia
• WI: Rare visitor (30 or less records) TBC
• Winters: India, tropical Southern Asia
• Habitat: Steppe, open agricultural land
• Diet: Omnivorous, Grasshoppers, other insects, some fruit
• Adult pink body, pale orange legs & bill. Glossy black head, wings & tail.
  Males: fluffy, wispy crest (longer in breeding season than winter) plumage dull black areas with paler edges in winter, glossy black in breeding.
  Females: short crest. Generally duller plumage with less defined colours.
  Juveniles: similar to Common Starling juveniles, but short yellow bill & paler plumage in Autumn. Moulting to similar to adults but no crests (Juveniles are birds most likely to turnup in UK in Autumn - our Starling juveniles have moulted to adult plumage by then so a brown Starling is probably rose-coloured juvenile)
• Similar to (and with a song like) a Common Starling

 

In years when grasshoppers and other insects are abundant, the Rose-coloured Starlings will irrupt beyond their normal range, with much larger numbers than usual reaching UK.

A breeding colony of about 3000 Rose-coloured Starlings can eat nearly 3 tons of grasshoppers, locusts or other insects a day, which makes them very welcome during a locust plague, to the point where locals will call them by magic and prayer.

Compare that to 1 million Common Starlings killed in a single eradication operation in the USA involving shootings, trapping, dynamite and poison (see Birds Britannica ISBN 0-701-16907-9).

 

Rose-coloured Starling records in the Western Isles

Rare visitor (30 or less records) TBC

The chart below shows how abundant the Rose-coloured Starling is during a month or when you are more likely to see it.

J	F	M	A	M	J	J	A	S	O	N	D

(Source: Outer Hebrides Birds Checklist)

 

 

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