Chestnut-tailed Starling
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[Photo] Chestnut-tailed Starling (Sturnus malabaricus); Sturnus malabaricus. Grey headed Myna. Chestnut tailed Starling. Photograph by J M Garg. Kolkata, India. December 2005.

Copyright (C) 2005 J. M. Garg Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU Free Documentation License".

The Chestnut-tailed Starling (Sturnus malabaricus), also known as Grey-headed Myna, is a member of the starling family of perching birds. It is a resident breeder in India and southeast Asia. It is occasionally moved to the genus Sturnia (as Sturnia malabarica), and this may well be correct, considering that Sturnus where it is usually placed is highly paraphyletic (Zuccon et al. 2006).

The adults of these 20 cm long birds have dark grey upperparts, rufous underparts and a chestnut tail. The head is a paler grey, with a white throat. The sexes are similar, but juveniles have grey upperparts and whitish underparts, with just chestnut tips to the tail feathers.

The White-headed Myna is usually considered a subspecies blythii of the present species, but some (e.g. Rasmussne & Anderton 2005) treat it as a distinct species. Adults of this south-west Indian bird have a completely white head and breast. They are resident breeders in the forests of the Western Ghats and do not interbreed with the migrant Sturnia malabarica which also visits the region in winter.

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.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut-tailed_Starling

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