Golden-breasted Starling

Golden-breasted Starling

Scientific name: Cosmopsarus regius
Family: Sturnidae
Order: Passerioformes
Class: Aves

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

Often called "the most beautiful of the African starlings," the Golden-breasted starling is a striking bird easily seen in the field. With a bright, metallic blue tail and back, which merges into the green of its head, white eyes and blue-violet wings, it gets its name from the yellow of its breast, belly, and upper tail covers, a color considered unique to African passerines.

The Golden-breasted starling is a slender-bodied bird with a fairly long bill and a long, graduated tail. It is 12 to 15 inches long with a wing length of 4.6 to 5.6 inches. Both males and females look alike. Typical of most starlings, the young are duller in color than the adults. The young are blackish with some green and the sides of the head and chest are ashy brown.

DISTRIBUTION and HABITAT:

The Golden-breasted starling is found in north-east Africa in the arid acacia of Somalia, Ethiopia, eastern Kenya and north-eastern Tanzania. It is most numerous in Tsavo National Park in Kenya. It inhabits the dry bush and thorn bush country, generally seen on the tops of trees.

BEHAVIOR:

The Golden-breasted starling lives in small family groups of 3 to 12 members. Typical of most starlings, generally considered to be noisy and garrulous, it has been called gregarious when in small flocks. It is said to have various loud whistling and subdued chattering calls. Cosmopsarus regius exhibits cooperative breeding, where group members assist with nest-building and the feeding of the young.

Breeding females often solicit food from other members of the group to feed to the young by assuming a crouched position, quivering their slightly raised wings, gaping and vocalizing. Members respond either by ignoring her and feeding the young directly, giving her part of the food and feeding the remainder to the young, or giving her all the food.

DIET:

Unlike most starlings which feed on a combination of insects and fruits, the Golden-breasted starling lives almost entirely on insects. Termites are caught by opening their ground tunnels with rapid flicks of its bill and other insects are caught in flight. Literature also suggests it eats snails, crabs, spiders and small vertebrates. In zoos, such as the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, starlings are fed fruit, dog and/or cat chow, meat and insects.

BREEDING and NESTING:

The Golden-breasted starling nest in tree holes, often abandoned by, or usurped from, woodpeckers, and sparsely line it with straw, leaves or roots. Clutch sizes is 3 to 5 eggs. The eggs are elongated, pale greenish-blue with reddish brown specks and about 1.1 x 0.7 inches. Like most starlings, C. regius molts once a year, after the breeding season.

The life expectancy of the Golden-breasted starling is 12 to 14 years.

There has been observations of cooperative breeding of the C. regius in the wild. Females often settles in the nest in the cavity of a tree, assisted by other members of the family who bring nesting materials and food. Group members, as well as the female, also assist in the feeding of the young.

The Golden-breasted starling can be found in many U.S. zoos, due to its striking appearance, but there has been limited success in breeding them in zoos.

Wild Population: The Golden-breasted starling is not an endangered species.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS:

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