Starling
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Photo] European Starling, Sturnus vulgaris; Photograph of a Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) - an immature female apparently. Taken by user PaulLomax (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PaulLomax) in London. Copyright asserted - contact www.paullomax.org/photography/ for other licensing.

Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Sturnidae (Rafinesque, 1815 )

Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name "Sturnidae" comes from the Latin word for Starling, sturnus. Starlings occur naturally only in the Old World (Europe, Asia and Africa), some forms as far east as Australia, but several European and Asian species have been introduced to North America, Australia, and New Zealand.

Starlings have strong feet, their flight is strong and direct, and they are very gregarious. Their preferred habitat is fairly open country, and they eat insects and fruit. Several species live around human habitation, and are effectively omnivores. Many species search for food by opening the bill after probing it into dense vegetation; this behavior is called "open-bill probing" or is referred to by the German word "zirkeln" (IPA: ['ts????kl??n]).

Plumage is typically dark with a metallic sheen. Most species nest in holes, laying blue or white eggs.

Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent plumage.

The shortest-bodied species is Kenrick's Starling (Poeoptera kenricki), at 15 centimetres (6 in), but the lightest-weight species is Abbott's Starling (Poeoptera femoralis), at 34 grams (1.2 oz). The largest starlings are the mynas of the genus Mino, especially the Yellow-faced (Mino dumontii) and Long-tailed Mynas (Mino kreffti). These mynas can exceed 30 centimetres (1 ft) and weigh over 225 grams (8 oz).

European Starlings are in decline in Europe. However, when introduced to North America they have been a factor in reducing native cavity nesting bird populations (such as Bluebirds and Red-headed Woodpeckers) by competing aggressively for nesting cavities.

Starlings were first brought to North America in the 1890s by Eugene Schieffelin, a wealthy New York pharmacologist and Shakespeare enthusiast (NGS 2002). It is said (though no evidence supports this) that his purpose was to introduce into North America all the birds mentioned in William Shakespeare's plays. As starlings receive a brief mention in Henry IV, Part 1, Schieffelin introduced 60 of the birds in Central Park, New York.

Starlings have diverse and complex vocalizations, and have been known to imbed sounds from their surroundings into their own calls, including car alarms, and human speech patterns. The birds can recognize particular individuals by their calls, and are currently the subject of research into the evolution of human language.

Systematics
The starlings belong to the superfamily Muscicapoidea, together with thrushes, flycatchers and chats, as well as dippers which are quite distant and Mimidae (thrashers and mockingbirds). The latter are apparently the Sturnidae's closest living relatives, replace them in the Americas, and have a rather similar but more solitary lifestyle. They are morphologically quite similar too - a partly albinistic specimen of a mimid, mislabelled as to suggest an Old World origin, was for many decades believed to represent an extinct starling (see Rodrigues Starling for details).

The oxpeckers are sometimes placed here as a subfamily, but the weight of evidence has shifted towards granting them full family ststus as a more basal member of the Sturnidae-Mimidae group, derived from an early expansion into Africa.

Usually the starlings are considered a family, as is done here. Sibley & Monroe (1990) included the mimids in the family and demoted the starlings to tribe rank, as Sturnini. This treatment was used by Zuccon et al. (2006). However, the grouping of Sibley & Monroe (besides leaving the subfamily rank vacant) is overly coarse due to methodological drawbacks of their DNA-DNA hybridization technique and most of their proposed revisions of taxonomic rank have not been accepted (see for example Ciconiiformes). The all-inclusive Sturnidae grouping is all but noninformative as regards biogeography, and obscures the evolutionary distinctness of the three lineages. Establishing a valid name for the clade consisting of Sibley/Monroe's "pan-Sturnidae" would nonetheless be desirable to contrast them with the other major lineages of Muscicapoidea.

Starlings probably originated in the general area of the East Asia, perhaps towards the southwestern Pacific, as evidenced by the number of plesiomorphic lineages to occur there. Expansion into Africa appears to have occurred later, as most derived forms are found there. An alternative scenario would be African origin for the entire "sturnoid" (as per Zuccon et al. 2006) group, with the oxpeckers representing an ancient relict and the mimids arriving in South America. This is contradicted by the North American distribution of the most basal Mimidae.(Cibois & Cracraft 2004, Zuccon et al. 2006)

As the fossil record is limited to quite Recent forms, the proposed Early Miocene (about 25-20 mya) divergence dates for the "sturnoids" lineages must be considered extemely tentative. Given the overall evidence for origin of most Passeri families in the first half of the Miocene, it appears to be not too far off the mark however.(Zuccon et al. 2006)

Recent studies (Cibois & Cracraft 2004, Zuccon et al. 2006) identified two major clades of this family, corresponding to the generally drab, often striped, largish "atypical mynas" and other mainly Asian-Pacific lineages, and the often smaller, sometimes highly apomorphic taxa which are most common in Africa and the Palearctic, usually have metallic coloration, and in a number of species also bright carotinoid plumage colors on the underside. Inside this latter group, there is a clade consisting of species which, again, are usually not too brightly-colored, and which consists of the "typical" myna-Sturnus assemblage.

Interestingly, the Philippine creepers, a single genus of 3 species of treecreeper-like birds appear to be highly apomorphic members of the more initial radiation of the Sturnidae (Zuccon et al. 2006). While this may seem odd ad first glance, their placement has always been contentious. In addition, biogeography virtually rules out a close relationship of Philippine creepers and treecreepers, as neither the latter nor their close relatives seem have ever reached the Wallacea, let alone the Philippines. Nonetheless, their inclusion in the Sturnidae is not entirely final and eventually they may remain a separate family.

Genus sequence follows traditional treatments. This is apparently not entirely correct, with Scissirostrum closer to Aplonis than to Gracula for example, and Acridotheres among the most advanced genera. Too few taxa have already been studied as regards their relationships however, and thus a change in sequence has to wait.

The upcoming review by Lovette & Rubenstein (in press) promises to resolve most uncertainties (though not the most pressing question: how Sturnus will be split up). Until it has been published, the following list should be considered preliminary.

Oriental-Australasian clade
Genus Rhabdornis - Philippine creepers (3 species; placement here requires confirmation)
Genus Aplonis - Pacific starlings (c.20 living species, 4-5 recently extinct)
Genus Mino
Yellow-faced Myna, Mino dumontii
Golden Myna, Mino anais
Long-tailed Myna, Mino kreffti
Genus Basilornis
Sulawesi Myna, Basilornis celebensis
Helmeted Myna, Basilornis galeatus
Long-crested Myna, Basilornis corythaix
Apo Myna, Basilornis mirandus
Genus Sarcops
Coleto, Sarcops calvus
Genus Streptocitta
White-necked Myna, Streptocitta albicollis
Bare-eyed Myna, Streptocitta albertinae
Genus Enodes
Fiery-browed Myna, Enodes erythrophris
Genus Scissirostrum
Finch-billed Myna, Scissirostrum dubium
Genus Ampeliceps - Golden-crested Myna
Genus Gracula - hill mynas (5 species)

Afrotropical-Palearctic clade
Genus Acridotheres - typical mynas (8 species)
Genus Leucopsar - Bali Starling
Genus Sturnia (often included in Sturnus)
Daurian Starling, Sturnia sturnina
Chestnut-cheeked Starling, Sturnia philippensis
White-shouldered Starling, Sturnia sinensis
White-headed Starling, Sturnia erythropygia
Genus Sturnus - typical starlings (about 12 species; includes probably valid genera Gracupica, Pastor and Temenuchus; but highly paraphyletic)
Genus Creatophora - Wattled Starling
Genus Notopholia (sometimes placed in Lamprotornis)
Black-bellied Glossy-starling, Notopholia corrusca
Genus Coccycolius - Iris Glossy-starling or Emerald Starling (sometimes placed in Lamprotornis)
Genus Lamprotornis - typical glossy-starlings (20 species; monophyly requires confirmation)
Genus Cinnyricinclus
Violet-backed Starling, Cinnyricinclus leucogaster
Genus Poeoptera (formerly Pholia, sometimes included in Cinnyricinclus)
Sharpe's Starling, Poeoptera sharpii
Abbott's Starling, Poeoptera femoralis
Genus Saroglossa (possibly paraphyletic)
Spot-winged Starling, Saroglossa spiloptera
Madagascar Starling, Saroglossa aurata
Genus Spreo (paraphyletic with Lamprotornis and might be included there)
African Pied Starling, Spreo bicolor
Fischer's Starling, Spreo fischeri
White-crowned Starling, Spreo albicapillus
Genus Compsarus
Golden-breasted Starling, Compsarus regius (sometimes placed in Lamprotornis)
Ashy Starling, Compsarus unicolor (sometimes placed in Spreo)
Genus Onychognathus
Red-winged Starling, Onychognathus morio
Slender-billed Starling, Onychognathus tenuirostris
Chestnut-winged Starling, Onychognathus fulgidus
Waller's Starling, Onychognathus walleri
Somali Starling, Onychognathus blythii
Socotra Starling, Onychognathus frater
Tristram's Starling, Onychognathus tristramii
Pale-winged Starling, Onychognathus nabouroup
Bristle-crowned Starling, Onychognathus salvadorii
White-billed Starling, Onychognathus albirostris
Neumann's Starling, Onychognathus neumanni
Genus Poeoptera
Narrow-tailed Starling, Poeoptera lugubris
Stuhlmann's Starling, Poeoptera stuhlmanni
Kenrick's Starling, Poeoptera kenricki
Genus Grafisia
White-collared Starling, Grafisia torquata
Genus Speculipastor - Magpie Starling
Genus Neocichla
Babbling Starling, Neocichla gutturalis

Unresolved
The extinct Mascarene starlings are of uncertain relationships. Only one species is known from specimens taken while the bird was still extant; the other remains only known from subfossil bones and apparently one early traveller's description. The supposed "Leguat's Starling" ("Necropsar leguati") was eventually determined to be a mislabelled albino specimen of the Martinique Trembler (Cinclocerthia gutturalis), a mimid.

As the avifauna of the Mascarenes is predominantly of Indian origin though as old as to be highly distinct, it is not clear to which clade these starlings belong - or even if they are indeed starlings, as the R??union Starling at least was highly aberrant and there have always been lingering dounbts about whether they are correctly placed here.

Genus Fregilupus - R??union Starling (extinct, 1850s)
Genus Necropsar - Rodrigues Starling (extinct, late 18th century?)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starling

The text in this page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article shown in above URL. It is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.