Spotless Starling

About the Spotless Starling

The spotless starling (Sturnus unicolor) is a passerine bird in the starling family, Sturnidae. It is closely related to the common starling (S. vulgaris), but has a much more restricted range, confined to the Iberian Peninsula, Northwest Africa, southernmost France, and the islands of Sicily, Corsica and Sardinia. It is largely non-migratory.

Subsequent to the recent split of the genus Sturnus, this species and the common starling are the only species retained in the genus. Hybrids with the common starling are found occasionally where the breeding ranges overlap in southwestern France and northeastern Spain.

The adult spotless starling is very similar to the common starling, but marginally larger (21–23 cm length; 70–100 g weight), and has darker, oily-looking black plumage, slightly purple- or green-glossed in bright light, which is entirely spotless in spring and summer, and only with very small pale spots in winter plumage, formed by the pale tips of the feathers. It also differs in having conspicuously longer throat feathers (twice the length of those on common starlings), forming a shaggy "beard" which is particularly obvious when... Wikipedia →