namesnero.blogg.se - Spotless starling

The specimens shown on this page were photographed in Cabanas de Tavira. It is found throughout the Algarve in farmland, coastal areas, old olive and almond groves and in and around buildings. Females in winter and immatures are lightly spotted but never show the intensity of spots so typical of Common Starling. The Spotless Starling is very similar to the Common Starling, but adults in summer and males in winter display no hint of spots.

Ageing and Sexing (PDF 4.Spotless Starling - Sturnus unicolor Pictures - John Foss.

Laboratorio Virtual Ibercaja 417 Spotless Starling

^ a b Blasco-Zumeta, J., & Heinze, G.-M. The Spotless Starling is very similar to the Common Starling, but adults in summer and males in winter display no hint of spots.

We show that the arrangement of these feathers was non-random with respect to the side (obverse or reverse) placed upwards (which can be viewed from the nest entrance). Phylogenetic relationships among Palearctic–Oriental starlings and mynas (genera Sturnus and Acridotheres: Sturnidae). Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor) 0:49 John Muddeman: : 13:31: Spain: Sierra Oeste (near Fresnedillas de la Oliva), Madrid, Comunidad de Madrid: 900: adult, male, mimicry/imitation, song : Sections from a continuous recording of a male imitating Golden Oriole (Oriolus oriolus), and perhaps Common Linnet (Linaria linaria). Females of the spotless starling ( Sturnus unicolor) regularly carry feathers to their nest, mostly during laying and incubation.

^ Zuccon, D., Pasquet, E., & Ericson, P.

The Birds of the Western Palearctic (Concise ed.). The EBCC Atlas of European Breeding Birds pp. Like most starlings, it is a cavity-nesting species, breeding in tree holes, buildings and in cliff crevices. It is gregarious, forming sizeable flocks, often mixed with common starlings, of up to 100,000 in winter. Like its more common relative, it is an omnivore, taking a wide variety of invertebrates, berries, and human-provided scraps.

The population has grown in recent decades with a northward expansion in range, spreading to the whole of Spain (previously absent from the northeast) between 19, and colonising locally along the southern coast of mainland France since 1983. The highest population densities are in open grazed holm oak woods, and in urban habitats such as Gibraltar, where it is common. Given the high laying synchrony found in this population, we refer to these peaks of laying as first, intermediate and second clutches. In case of failure of the first clutch, a replacement clutch is laid. They often have two consecutive clutches per year, in which females lay around five eggs per clutch. The spotless starling uses a wide range of habitats and can be found in any reasonably open environment, from farmland and olive groves to human habitation. Appearance: Similar to Starling, and may be difficult to tell apart in winter and immature plumages. Spotless starlings reproduce synchronously with neighbors in the colony. It is a noisy bird and a good mimic its calls are similar to the common starling's, but louder. Like the common starling, it walks rather than hops, and has a strong direct flight, looking triangular-winged and short-tailed. It can also be confused with the common blackbird ( Turdus merula), which differs most obviously in its longer tail and lack of plumage gloss. Confusion with the common starling is particularly easy during the winter, when common starlings are abundant throughout the spotless starling's range, but also in summer where their breeding ranges overlap in northeastern Spain and the far south of France. Young birds are dull brown, darker than young common starlings, and have a black bill and brown legs.

In summer, the bill is yellow with a bluish base in males and a pinkish base in females in winter, it is duller, often blackish. vulgaris, but has a much more restricted range, confined to the Iberian Peninsula.

This Starling is closely related to the common starling S. It also differs in having conspicuously longer throat feathers (twice the length of those on common starlings ), forming a shaggy "beard" which is particularly obvious when the bird is singing. In flight, it is not possible to separate readily Common and Spotless Starlings unless good photographs can be obtained. Spotless Starling (Sturnus unicolor) in Spain. The adult spotless starling is very similar to the common starling, but marginally larger (21–23 cm length 70–100 g weight), and has darker, oily-looking black plumage, slightly purple- or green-glossed in bright light, which is entirely spotless in spring and summer, and only with very small pale spots in winter plumage, formed by the pale tips of the feathers.