Superb Starling

Superb Starling

Lamprotornis superbus

IUCN red list status:
Least Concern

For more informations, please visit iucnredlist.org

Superb Starling

About the Superb Starling

The Superb Starling is a small but brightly coloured bird. The head is all black, with a pale yellow eye and black beak. The neck, breast, back, wings and tail are covered with blue-green feathers. A thin white stripe separates the glossy blue breast from a red-orange belly. They live in dry woodlands and forests, thorn and acacia woodland, scrub grasslands, and around human inhabited areas such as agricultural fields and urban/suburban areas.

This bird has various calls - it can whistle, mimic other species, and its alarm call is loud and whining. Some songs of the starling may have as many as 82 distinct phrases, and females that move to a new group learn the phrases of that group. The Superb Starling has a flock of up to 40 or more individuals that defend a territory year-round, even feeding together in their flocks.

Did you know?

Males and Females are similar in appearance, while young birds can be distinguished by their dark eyes. Starlings are in the taxon group Passerines which are known as perching birds.