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The starling species familiar to most people in Europe and North America is the common starling, and throughout much of Asia and the Pacific, the common myna is indeed common. Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct, and they are very gregarious. Their preferred habitat is fairly open country, and they eat insects and fruit.
Protozoan blood parasites of the genus Haemoproteus have been found in common starlings, [81] but a better known pest is the brilliant scarlet nematode Syngamus trachea. This worm moves from the lungs to the trachea and may cause its host to suffocate. In Britain, the rook and the common starling are the most infested wild birds. [82]
A common starling in eastern Siberia. The genus Sturnus was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae. [1] The genus name Sturnus is Latin for "starling". [2] Of the four species included by Linnaeus, the common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) is considered the type species. [3]
The golden-breasted starling has a very large range. It is distributed in Northeastern Africa, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania. [2] These birds inhabit the grassland, savannah, the thickets of acacias, dry-thorn forests and shrubland.
The white-cheeked starling was formerly placed in the genus Sturnus.A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2008 found that the genus was polyphyletic. [2] In the reoganization to create monotypic genera, the white-cheeked starling and the red-billed starling were moved to the resurrected genus Spodiopsar that had been introduced in 1889 by Richard Bowdler Sharpe.
Hildebrandt's starling is 18 cm (7.1 in) in length and weighs 50 to 69 g (1.8–2.4 oz). The adult has bright iridescent plumage on its upper body and upper surfaces. As in its relatives, this iridescence is derived from the interference of reflected light from regimented microscopic feather structures and not from pigments.
The Daurian starling (Agropsar sturninus), or purple-backed starling, is a species of bird in the starling family found in the eastern Palearctic from eastern Mongolia and southeastern Russia to North Korea and central China.
The Madagascar starling (Hartlaubius auratus) is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae.It is endemic to Madagascar. [1]Commonly placed in the monotypic genus Hartlaubius, the Madagascan starling is also sometimes placed in the genus Saroglossa (as Saroglossa aurata), which otherwise only contains the spot-winged starling (S. spilopterus).