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Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Cape Glossy Starling

As the weather cools down, I see less LBJ's other small birds. We still see many raptors and down at the river are the Bee-eaters, Fork-tailed Drongos and Mountain Chats. However, here on the lawn and in the field next door, the Cape Glossy Starling still brightens my bird-hungry day.

The Cape starling is found in the southern part of Africa. Its range encompasses the extreme south of Gabon, the west and south of Angola, the extreme south of Zambia, ZimbabweNamibiaBotswanaLesotho and South Africa. It is a vagrant to the Republic of the Congo but does not breed there. In the other countries in its range it is a resident (non-migratory) species and its total extent of occurrence is about 3,000,000 square kilometers (1,200,000 sq mi). The Cape starling is found where trees are found in which it can roost and nest. It is not a bird of dense forest or of pasture and is not associated with any particular plant type. It does occur in open woodland, plantations, Savannah, bushveld, rough grassland, parks and gardens and is quite numerous in the central Kalahari where isolated trees occur.[5]

I copied and pasted the above from Wikipedia to show the common status and ordinariness of the Cape Glossy Starling. 

Image result for distribution map of cape glossy starling

Above is a map of South Africa and the irony is that in the southernmost part of the country - the Cape - (between the letters CT and PE) the Cape Glossy Starling doesn't occur.

Nevertheless, this starling is striking in that it's iridescent blue-green plumage with yellow eyes catches your attention every time. 

Cape Glossy Starling

I'm linking to Wild Bird Wednesday here






7 comments:

  1. We have many starlings here but they seem "ordinary" compared to this beauty!

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  2. A beautiful bird! Very interesting!
    It is amazing to me that our birds this week are so similar - iridescent plumage, yellow eyes - though we are far apart geographically!
    Hope you are having a wonderful day!

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  3. Hi Jo - that's an interesting bird. Glossy as you can get. Thanks.
    Glad you're back and had a good break. Cheers.

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  4. Cool bird! Funny it avoids the most southern part of Africa.

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  5. very pretty birds, I love the neon blue colors in their feathers.. they glow... had to smile at the bird hungry day remark..

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  6. I like the glossy colour.

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  7. Très bel oiseau ;-)
    Céline a Philippe

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