While photographing birds in my back yard, I discovered that the sun's side-lighting shows one thing on the bright side and another in a shadow, making it difficult sometimes to name the species of birds. At first glance, I thought both birds were common starlings, but then I learned that European starlings can have a black head where our common starlings often are speckled black-blue all over. Will one of the bird experts on UHH kindly tell me if I have one of each or both common starlings? I am including the original image before editing images as well as the post edited version so you can see the original image to help in identification. Thank you in advance.
We call them European with their winter coat!
I think the "common" starling IS the European Starling. I didn't know there were other kinds of starlings until I saw the Bali starling; a beautiful (and almost extinct) bird!
DaveO wrote:
We call them European with their winter coat!
Dear DaveO...Thank you for your quick and informative response.
Dear RustyM...I enjoyed reading about the European Starling and learning that they can live up to fifteen years. Thank you for your swift and helpful information.
ELNikkor wrote:
I think the "common" starling IS the European Starling. I didn't know there were other kinds of starlings until I saw the Bali starling; a beautiful (and almost extinct) bird!
Dear ELNikkor...Thank you for your swift and informative response.
Shooter41 wrote:
Dear DaveO...Thank you for your quick and informative response.
LOL, I am certainly not an authority! I'll send you a couple different pics via PM when time allows.
This is a European Starling....
Check out the Superb Starling (yes, that's really its name) common in East Africa. This one was in Amboseli National Park.
joecichjr
Loc: Chicago S. Suburbs, Illinois, USA
Whatever, they are beautiful!
glb1128 wrote:
This is a European Starling....
Dear glb1128...Thank you for the helpful information.
I see you already have the answer, but I found this before I noticed that others had given you good information, so thought I would pass it on.
From a google search:
The common starling or European starling, also known simply as the starling in the British Isles, is a medium-sized passerine bird in the starling family.
So here they refer to it as being one bird. Plus looking in National Geographic Field guide, Stokes Field guide and Crossley's ID guide the only Starling they list is the European Starling, no common. The difference in coloring is seasonal according to Crossley's.
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