Chestnut-tailed starling

Appearance

The adults have a total length of approximately 20 cm . They have grey upperparts and blackish remiges, but the colour of the remaining plumage depend on the subspecies. In the nominate subspecies and ''blythii'', the underparts are rufous, but in ''nemoricola'' the underparts are whitish tinged rufous . The nominate and ''nemoricola'' have a light grey head with whitish streaking . Both subspecies have white irides and a yellow bill with a pale blue base. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have whitish underparts and just chestnut tips to the tail feathers.

Distribution

The lack of monophyly in the earlier starling genera has led to this species being placed variously under genus ''Sturnia'', ''Sturnus'' and ''Temenuchus'' in the past and studies have suggested the reuse of an old name ''Temenuchus'' for members of this clade. Later studies have suggested placement in the genus ''Sturnia''.

There are two subspecies of the chestnut-tailed starling:

⤷ ''S. m. malabarica'': North-eastern India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and north-western Burma
⤷ ''S. malabarica nemoricola'': Southern China , Burma, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia

Both the nominate subspecies and ''nemoricola'' are known to perform some poorly understood movements .

The taxon ''blythii'' is now usually considered a valid species, the Malabar white-headed starling or white-headed myna , instead of a subspecies of ''Sturnia malabarica''. As ''S. m. malabarica'' only visits the range of ''blythii'' during the non-breeding period , the two are not known to interbreed. However a molecular study found the genetic divergence between ''S. malabarica blythii'' not significantly greater than between the sisters ''S. malabarica malabarica'' of northern India and ''S. malabarica nemoricola'' of Burma and Vietnam.

Behavior

The chestnut-tailed starling's nest is typically found in open woodland and cultivation. The chestnut-tailed starling builds a nest in hole. The normal clutch is 3-5 eggs.

Like most starlings, the chestnut-tailed starling is fairly omnivorous, eating fruit, nectar and insects. They fly in tight flocks and often rapidly change directions with great synchrony.