Red-shouldered Glossy-starling

About the Red-shouldered Glossy-starling

The Cape starling (Lamprotornis nitens), also known as red-shouldered glossy-starling or Cape glossy starling, is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in Southern Africa, where it lives in woodlands, bushveld and in suburbs.

Two subspecies are recognised, but not by all authors. L. n. culminator is said to be larger, with greener wing and tail plumage. Its secondary remiges are also glossy on both vanes, i.e. not matt black on the inner vanes as in L. n. phoenicopterus.

L. n. phoenicopterus — widespread in Southern Africa L. n. culminator — Eastern Cape, South Africa In 1760, the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the Cape starling in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in Angola. He used the French name Le merle verd d'Angola and the Latin Merula Viridis Angolensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recognised by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. When in 1766, the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described... Wikipedia →