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Common Starling
Latin Name:
Sturnus vulgaris
Category:
Size:
20cm
Description:
Glossy black plumage, with iridescent purple and green; plumage spotted with buff and white; hackled feathers on head, neck and breast; yellowish beak and red-brown legs. Summer (breeding) plumage mostly blackish. Several races winter in N India, with head purple or bronze-green, but field identification of races not very easy in winter. Gregarious, restless birds; feeds on ground, moving hurriedly, digging with beak in soil; entire flock may often take off from ground; flies around erratically or circles, but soon settles on trees or returns to ground.
Habitat:
Meadows, orchards, vicinity of habitation, open, fallow land.
Distribution:
The race indicus breeds in Kashmir to about 2,000m; this and three other races winter over NW and N India, occasionally straying south to Gujarat; quite common in parts of N India in winter.