Bird Sightings: Rose-coloured Starling

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Bird Sightings: Rose-coloured Starling

Rose-coloured Starling

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

AKA Rosy Starling, Rosy Pastor

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

Winters: India, tropical Southern Asia

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)

Habitat: Steppe, open agricultural land

Diet: Omnivorous, Grasshoppers, other insects, some fruit

Song like a common starling

In years when grasshoppers and other insects are abundant, these birds will irrupt beyond their normal range, with much larger numbers than usual reaching UK.

A breeding colony of about 3000 birds 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.

Terry Fountain's web site:
http://www.hebridesphotographic.com

Other local bird photographs

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