| Cape starling | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Cape starling inEtosha National Park, Namibia | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Aves |
| Order: | Passeriformes |
| Family: | Sturnidae |
| Genus: | Lamprotornis |
| Species: | L. nitens |
| Binomial name | |
| Lamprotornis nitens (Linnaeus, 1766) | |
 | |
L. n. phoenicopterus | |
| Synonyms | |
Turdus nitensLinnaeus, 1766 | |
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TheCape starling (Lamprotornis nitens), also known asred-shouldered glossy-starling orCape glossy starling, is a species ofstarling in the familySturnidae. It is found inSouthern Africa, where it lives inwoodlands,bushveld and insuburbs.[4]
Twosubspecies are recognised,[2] but not by all authors.[5]L. n. culminator is said to be larger, with greener wing and tail plumage. Itssecondary remiges are also glossy on both vanes, i.e. not matt black on the inner vanes as inL. n. phoenicopterus.[2]
In 1760, the FrenchzoologistMathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape starling in hisOrnithologie based on a specimen collected inAngola. He used the French nameLe merle verd d'Angola and the LatinMerula Viridis Angolensis.[6] Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to thebinomial system and are not recognised by theInternational Commission on Zoological Nomenclature.[7] When in 1766, the Swedish naturalistCarl Linnaeus updated hisSystema Naturae for thetwelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson.[7] One of these was the Cape starling. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined thebinomial nameTurdus nitens and cited Brisson's work.[8] Thespecific namenitens is Latin for "shining" or "glittering".[9] This species is now placed in the genusLamprotornis that was introduced by the Dutch zoologistCoenraad Jacob Temminck in 1820.[10]
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The Cape starling has an adult length of about 25 cm (10 in) and weight of about 100 grams (3.5 oz). The plumage of an adult bird is a fairly uniform bright, glossy colour. The head is blue with darker ear coverts and the upper parts of the body are greenish-blue. It has a lengthy warbling song which may include an imitation of sounds it hears in its environment.[12]
The Cape starling is found in the southern part ofAfrica. Its range encompasses the extreme south ofGabon, the west and south ofAngola, the extreme south ofZambia, throughoutZimbabwe,Namibia,Botswana,Lesotho andSouth Africa. It is a vagrant to theRepublic of the Congo but does not breed there. In the other countries in its range it is a resident (non-migratory) species and its total extent of occurrence is about 3,000,000 square kilometres (1,200,000 sq mi).[13] The Cape starling is found where trees in which it can roost and nest are found. It is not a bird of dense forest or of pasture and is not associated with any particular plant type. It does occur in open woodland, plantations, savannah, bushveld, rough grassland, parks and gardens and is quite numerous in the centralKalahari where isolated trees occur.[1]
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The Cape starling is a gregarious bird and forms large flocks in the non-breeding season. It usually feeds on the ground often foraging alongside other species of starlings such as thepied starling, thecommon starling, thegreater blue-eared starling, thelesser blue-eared starling, thewattled starling andBurchell's starling.[1] It is habituated to humans and its diet includes fruit, insects and nectar. It sometimes feeds onectoparasites that it picks off the backs of animals and it sometimes visitsbird tables for scraps.[14]
Breeding mainly takes place between October and February but may continue into April in Namibia. It nests in crevices such as holes in trees and out-competes other birds seeking to use these holes. It is a host to thegreater honeyguide, abrood parasite that lays its eggs in other birds' nests.[1] In an observed nest in a thorn tree at the edge of the Kalahari, the chicks were fed predominantly ongrasshoppers,locusts,ants andbeetles, and were also given fruit, insect larvae and other small invertebrates.[14]
Media related toLamprotornis nitens at Wikimedia Commons