Red-winged starling
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The red-winged starling (''Onychognathus morio'') is a
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...
of the starling family Sturnidae native to eastern
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
from
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
to the Cape in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. An omnivorous, generalist species, it prefers cliffs and mountainous areas for nesting, and has moved into cities and towns due to similarity to its original habitat.


Taxonomy

In 1760 the French zoologist
Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published works ...
included a description of the red-winged starling in his ''Ornithologie'' based on a specimen collected from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. He used the French name ''Le merle du Cap de Bonne Espérance'' and the Latin ''Merula Capitis Bonae Spei''. The two stars (**) at the start of the section indicates that Brisson based his description on the examination of a specimen. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766 the Swedish naturalist
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...
updated his '' Systema Naturae'' for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the red-winged starling. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name ''Turdus morio'' and cited Brisson's work. The specific name ''morio'' or ''morion'' is Latin for "dark brown stone" or "black quartz". This species is now placed in the genus '' Onychognathus'' that was introduced by the German physician and ornithologist
Gustav Hartlaub Karel Johan Gustav Hartlaub (8 November 1814 – 29 November 1900) was a German physician and ornithologist. Hartlaub was born in Bremen, and studied at Bonn and Berlin before graduating in medicine at Göttingen. In 1840, he began to study and co ...
in 1849. Two subspecies are recognised: * ''O. m. rueppellii'' ( Verreaux, J, 1856) – south Sudan to central Ethiopia and north Kenya * ''O. m. morio'' (Linnaeus, 1766) – Uganda and Kenya to Botswana and south South Africa


Description

The male of this long
starling Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The Sturnidae are named for the genus '' Sturnus'', which in turn comes from the Latin word for starling, ''sturnus''. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, ...
has mainly iridescent black plumage, with chestnut flight feathers, which are particularly noticeable in flight. The female has an ash-grey head and upper breast. The juvenile resembles the male, but is less glossy than the adults, and has brown rather than dark red eyes. The Ethiopian subspecies ''O. m. rupellii'' is longer-tailed than the nominate form and intergrades with it. This species has a number of whistled calls, but the most familiar is the contact call, ''cher-leeeoo''. This starling may be confused with other similar starling species, such as its sister species the pale-winged starling. The difference between the two is that the red-winged has rufous primaries while the pale-winged has whitish primaries edged with orange. The pale-winged has a bright red or orange eye, while the red-winged's is dark, almost black. Only the female of the red-winged has a grey head.


Distribution and habitat

The range runs down eastern
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
from
Ethiopia Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
to the
Cape A cape is a clothing accessory or a sleeveless outer garment which drapes the wearer's back, arms, and chest, and connects at the neck. History Capes were common in medieval Europe, especially when combined with a hood in the chaperon. Th ...
, Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...
. This species has a wide habitat tolerance. It may be found in
forest A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, savannah,
grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses ( Poaceae). However, sedge ( Cyperaceae) and rush ( Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur na ...
, wetlands, fynbos,
farmland Agricultural land is typically land ''devoted to'' agriculture, the systematic and controlled use of other forms of lifeparticularly the rearing of livestock and production of cropsto produce food for humans. It is generally synonymous with bo ...
s and commercial
plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
s, as well as urban centres. It is now common in many urban areas, due to the similarity between the structure of tall buildings and houses as nest sites with the cliffs of its original habitat. It may also nest in residential areas, breeding in roofs and apertures and up house eaves.


Behaviour


Food and feeding

Like other starlings, the red-winged starling is an omnivore, taking a wide range of seeds, berries, nectar from plants such as '' Aloe'' and '' Schotia brachypetala'', and
invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...
s, such as the beetle species '' Pachnoda sinuata''. They may take nestlings and adults of certain bird species, such as the
African palm swift The African palm swift (''Cypsiurus parvus'') is a small swift. It is very similar to the Asian palm swift, ''Cypsiurus balasiensis'', and was formerly considered to be the same species. The Malagasy palm swift was also recently split from this ...
. It will also scavenge on carrion and human food scrap. The red-winged starling will obviously only perch on plant structures that will be able to support its weight; therefore when taking nectar it will choose certain species with strong, robust racemes with easily accessible flowers, such as that of ''
Aloe ferox ''Aloe ferox'', commonly known as bitter aloe, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asphodelaceae. This woody aloe is indigenous to southern Africa. It is one of several ''Aloe'' species used to make bitter aloes, a purgative medicatio ...
'' and '' Aloe marlothii'', and not ''
Aloe arborescens ''Aloe arborescens'', the krantz aloe or candelabra aloe, is a species of flowering succulent perennial plant that belongs to the genus ''Aloe'', which it shares with the well known and studied ''Aloe vera''. The specific epithet ''arborescens'' ...
''. Large flowers that can support the bird's weight, such as that of '' Strelitzia nicolai'' and certain ''
Protea ''Protea'' () is a genus of South African flowering plants, also called sugarbushes (Afrikaans: ''suikerbos''). Etymology The genus ''Protea'' was named in 1735 by Carl Linnaeus, possibly after the Greek god Proteus, who could change his form a ...
'' species, are also chosen. Fruit species that this species may feed on include figs, such as the
sycamore fig ''Ficus sycomorus'', called the sycamore fig or the fig-mulberry (because the leaves resemble those of the mulberry), sycamore, or sycomore, is a fig species that has been cultivated since ancient times. The term '' sycamore'' spelled with an A ...
and others, marulas, date palm fruit, berries from species such as wild olive '' Olea europaea subsp. cuspidata'' and ''
Euphorbia ''Euphorbia'' is a very large and diverse genus of flowering plants, commonly called spurge, in the family Euphorbiaceae. "Euphorbia" is sometimes used in ordinary English to collectively refer to all members of Euphorbiaceae (in deference to t ...
'', and commercial fruit such as
apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...
s,
grape A grape is a fruit, botanically a berry, of the deciduous woody vines of the flowering plant genus '' Vitis''. Grapes are a non- climacteric type of fruit, generally occurring in clusters. The cultivation of grapes began perhaps 8,000 years a ...
s, citruses and others. In rural areas, red-winged starlings are often spotted perching on livestock and game, such as
cattle Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus ''Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ma ...
,
klipspringer The klipspringer (; ''Oreotragus oreotragus'') is a small antelope found in eastern and southern Africa. The sole member of its genus and subfamily/tribe, the klipspringer was first described by German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zim ...
s and
giraffes The giraffe is a large African hoofed mammal belonging to the genus ''Giraffa''. It is the tallest living terrestrial animal and the largest ruminant on Earth. Traditionally, giraffes were thought to be one species, '' Giraffa camelopardal ...
, a trait shared by the pale-winged starling, and may take insects and ectoparasites such as ticks, much in the manner of
oxpecker The oxpeckers are two species of bird which make up the genus ''Buphagus'', and family Buphagidae. The oxpeckers were formerly usually treated as a subfamily, Buphaginae, within the starling family, Sturnidae, but molecular phylogenetic studi ...
s.


Breeding

The red-winged starling is territorial, aggressive and intolerant when nesting, and will attack other species, including domestic animals and humans. When not breeding, red-winged starlings are highly gregarious and will associate with other members of their species in large flocks. This starling is a cliff nester, breeding on rocky cliffs, outcrops and gorges. The red-winged starling builds a lined nest of grass and twigs, and with a mud base, on a natural or structural ledge. It lays two to four, usually three, blue eggs, spotted with red-brown. The female incubates the eggs for 13–14 days, with another 22–28 days to fledge. This starling is commonly double-brooded. It may be parasitised by the great spotted cuckoo.


Predators

It is preyed upon by other birds such as peregrine falcons,
lanner falcon The lanner falcon (''Falco biarmicus'') is a medium-sized bird of prey that breeds in Africa, southeast Europe and just into Asia. It prefers open habitat and is mainly resident, but some birds disperse more widely after the breeding season. A l ...
s,
tawny eagle The tawny eagle (''Aquila rapax'') is a large bird of prey. Like all eagles, it belongs to the family ''Accipitridae''. Its heavily feathered legs mark it as a member of the subfamily Aquilinae, also known as booted eagles.Helbig, A. J., Kocum, ...
s,
cape eagle-owl The Cape eagle-owl (''Bubo capensis'') is a species of owl in the family Strigidae. It is one of several large species of the eagle-owl genus ''Bubo''. Range Its range is limited to the southernmost regions of southern Africa as well as parts ...
s,
pied crow The pied crow (''Corvus albus'') is a widely distributed African bird species in the crow genus. Structurally, the pied crow is better thought of as a small crow-sized raven, especially as it can hybridise with the Somali crow (dwarf raven) whe ...
s, and
gymnogene The African harrier-hawk, harrier hawk or gymnogene (''Polyboroides typus'') is a bird of prey. It is about in length. It breeds in most of Africa south of the Sahara. The only other member of the genus is the allopatric Madagascar harrier-haw ...
.


Status

The red-winged starling is not endangered and can be a pest in some areas, raiding orchards and attacking people that wander too close to their nests.


Gallery

File:Onychognathus morio 2.jpg, Chestnut-coloured
primaries Primary elections, or direct primary are a voting process by which voters can indicate their preference for their party's candidate, or a candidate in general, in an upcoming general election, local election, or by-election. Depending on the c ...
, which are particularly noticeable in flight, help to distinguish this species from the similar pale-winged starling. Image:Red-winged Starling 2014 02 23 6113.jpg, Male with caterpillar food item Image:Red-winged Starling male RWD.jpg, Male feeding in a Cape fig Image:Red-winged Starling female RWD.jpg, Female, showing streaky grey head plumage Image:Red Winged Starling on Table Mountain Cape Town 016.jpg, Exposed black-tipped, rufous primaries File:Red-winged starling chick.JPG, A Red-winged starling chick that is almost old enough to leave the nest.


References

* *Sinclair, Hockey and Tarboton, ''SASOL Birds of Southern Africa'',


External links


Species text
- ''The Atlas of Southern African Birds'' {{Taxonbar, from=Q1588297 red-winged starling Birds of Sub-Saharan Africa red-winged starling Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus