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METALLIC STARLING FACTS |
Description
The Metallic Starling is a black rainforest bird with glossy purple and green that gives it a metallic sheen. It has a bright red eye and stout bill. The tail is narrow and long. Juvenile birds are dark brown with white chest and throat streaked with grey, and brown. As the bird matures it develops the red eye and black colour, but still has white underside which is streaked with black. The white underside becomes black when it develops its full adult plumage. They are gregarious noisy birds.
Size
20cm - 22cm
Habitat
rainforest, mangroves
Food
The Metallic Starling feeds mainly on fruit and also takes insects.
Breeding
nests in tress in colonies. The nest is dome made of grass, bark and other plant fibre, and is lined with feathers. Lays two to four pale eggs with brownish spots
Range
north east coastal areas of tropical Queensland from Cape York to around Gladstone. Also found in New Guinea, the Moluccas Islands and the Solomon Islands.
Credits:
Map is from Atlas of Living Australia website at https://biocache.ala.org.au licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Classification
| Class: | Aves | | Order: | Passeriformes | | Family: | Sturnidae | | Genus: | Aplonis | | Species: | metallica | | Common Name: | Metallic Starling |
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