mdahlem.net WWW

Aust birds    Bird names   News   1-26    Habitats    Key plants    Glossary    Plumage    Nests    Tips    Thumbnails    Gen. info    Sponsors    Photos for sale
NON-PASSERINES     1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9    10     11     12     13     14	15     16     17     18     19     20     21     22     23     24     25     26     PASSERINES
Common names sorted alphabetically: A   B   C   D   E   F   G   H   I   J   K   L   M   N   O   P   Q   R   S   T   W   Y

26

Metallic Starling (Aplonis metallica) Alternate name(s): "Shining Starling", "Shiny Starling", "Australian Shiny Starling", "Glossy Starling", "Whirlwindbird" Aboriginal name(s): Race "metallica": "jiyirri" [ngadjon] Size: 22-24 cm Weight: 50-65 g

Australia: Family Group 26 Family Group 26 Table Australian Reed-Warbler Spinifexbird Tawny Grassbird Little Grassbird Golden-headed Cisticola Zitting Cisticola Rufous Songlark Brown Songlark Yellow White-eye Silvereye Bassian Thrush Russet-tailed Thrush Metallic Starling Thumbnails page Family group table Index of bird names Habitat pages Key plants Birds home page

Similar species

Description     Classification     Distribution     Sightings     Photos     Breeding     Nest     Eggs     Behaviour     Food     Call/s

Physical description Click here for a physical description Metallic Starlings are tropical rainforest birds. The two sexes look alike. Their plumage is highly glossy. Most of the body is dark metallic-green, while parts are dark metallic blue to purple. Details of the perceived colour pattern depend on the angle of infalling sunlight. The eyes have conspicuous orange-red irises. The strong, nearly straight bill is dark-grey; legs and feet are also dark-grey. Juvenile Metallic Starlings have a white front - from throat to undertail coverts - with heavy, near-black striation, and a more greyish-brown head. The upperparts are greyish-brown. The irises are dark. In immature Metallic Starlings the upperparts are metallic dark, as in adults, but the underparts remain white, with sparser dark streaking. The most prominent change is that their irises are orange-red. Some individuals can breed in this plumage.

Taxonomy, classification See Metallic Starling at Wikipedia .

Range, habitat, finding this species Click here for information on habitat and range The overall distribution of this species can be assessed, and specific locations where birds have been spotted can be found, based on individual sighting reports submitted by birdwatchers to ebird.org . The global distribution of the Metallic Starling is available HERE . Metallic Starlings are found in the tropics of South-east Asia, in an area ranging from West Papua (eastern Indonesia) via New Guinea to the Solomon Islands and to north-eastern Australia. There is only one race of Metallic Starlings in Australia, "metallica", which are breeding migrants that are also found on islands along the Torres Strait and further North, up to New Guinea. On the Australian continent the are found along a narrow coastal strip, from just to the West of the tip of Cape York peninsula, across the tip and then down the East coast of tropical QLD, to about Innisfail, QLD. Occasionally they can be found farther South, to about Conway NP, QLD. Metallic Starlings have a preference for tropical forest, which in Australia is found only in coastal and near-coastal areas.

Sightings Click here for sighting information Race "metallica" M. Mearns reports finding Metallic Starlings, race "metallica", nesting on Cape York peninsula, QLD, in October 2008. B. Hensen reports spotting Metallic Starlings, race "metallica", in Cairns, QLD, in July 2013, and again in December 2018. They were also found at Oak Beach, QLD, in December 2018. M. Eaton spotted Metallic Starlings, race "metallica", in Port Douglas, QLD, in July 2018. J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours reports finding Metallic Starlings, race "metallica", repeatedly in Mossman, QLD, where they were found to be breeding.

Photos

Race "metallica"

ADULT

PAIR

Close-up frontal view of a pair of Metallic Starlings defending their nest site
(photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, October 2019]

Close-up frontal/near-lateral view of a pair of Metallic Starlings defending their nest site
(photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, October 2019]

Close-up near-frontal/near-lateral view of a pair of Metallic Starlings near their nest
(photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, October 2019]

Sex unknown

Close-up frontal portrait of an adult Metallic Starling working on its nest
(photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, January 2019]

Frontal view of an adult Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Frontal view of an adult Metallic Starling looking sideways (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Frontal view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Cairns, QLD, July 2013]

Near-frontal view of an adult Metallic Starling looking sideways (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Near-lateral/ventral view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Lateral view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Lateral view of a Metallic Starling defending its nest site (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, October 2019]

Lateral/ventral view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Close-up near-dorsal view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, October 2019]

Near-dorsal view of a Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Small flock of Metallic Starlings, with adult birds at the centre of the group and younger ones on the fringes
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Cairns, QLD, July 2013]

IMMATURE/JUVENILE

Frontal/ventral view of a sub-adult Metallic Starling; only the head plumage needs to moult to reach adult form
(photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Lateral view of a sub-adult Metallic Starling, with only a few white patches of the juvenile plumage remaining
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Cairns, QLD, July 2013]

Close-up near-frontal portrait of an immature Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, January 2019]

Frontal/ventral view of an immature Metallic Starling looking down (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Lateral/ventral view of an immature Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Dorsal/ventral view of an immature Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Port Douglas, QLD, July 2018]

Near-lateral view of a juvenile Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Cairns, QLD, July 2013]

Close-up lateral view of a juvenile Metallic Starling (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, May 2022]

Breeding information

Breeding season: Aug - Jan

Eggs: 2 - 4

Incubation period: ca. 15 days

Fledging age: 21 - 25 days

Nest building: Female & male?

Incubation: Female & male

Dependent care: Female & male

Nest

"bungobittah", "lar", "malunna", "jindi" [bundjalung] = nest [Aboriginal]

Type: Domed hanging bottle

Material: Vine tendrils; palm leaf lining

Height above ground: >10? m

Pair of Metallic Starlings working on their nest (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Pair of Metallic Starlings working on their nest (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Dorsal view of a Metallic Starling at the entrance to its nest (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, November 2019]

Part of a tree crown with a small colony of Metallic Starling nests in it (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Closer look at a dense cluster of Metallic Starling nests (photo courtesy of M. Mearns)
[Cape York peninsula, QLD, October 2008]

Cluster of Metallic Starling nests nests in it (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Cluster of Metallic Starling nests (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Cairns, QLD, December 2018]

The interesting detail in this construction is that the owners of the upper nests must be ok with others hanging off their support with the extra weight of additional nests (photo courtesy of M. Eaton)
[Mission Beach, QLD, September 2020]

Eggs

"boyanga", "booyanga", "derinya", "dirandil", "koomura", "mirk", "ngampu", "nooluk", "pateena", "pum-pum" = Egg; "dirundirri" = eggs [Aboriginal]; "gawu" = eggs [gamilaraay]

Size: 30 x 21 mm

Colour: Light-blue, with sparse light- to mid-brown speckles

Shape: Tapered oval

Behaviour

Social behaviour: Communal

Mobility: Migratory

Elementary unit: Flock

Like most species, Metallic Starlings like a bath; and like basically everything else, they do it in numbers
(photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Oak Beach, QLD, December 2018]

Food, Diet

Metallic Starlings are omnivores, with a preference for insects and fruit.

Close-up frontal portrait of a Metallic Starling with its prey, a flying insect (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, January 2019]

Close-up lateral view of a Metallic Starling with a fruit (photo courtesy of J. Boettcher, FNQ Nature Tours)
[Mossman, QLD, November 2019]

Metallic Starlings having a drink of water (photo courtesy of B. Hensen)
[Kingfisher Park, Julatten, QLD, November 2018]

Call(s)/Song

For this species we have recorded the following call(s)/song. The interpretation of their meaning is our own; comments and suggestions for improvement are welcome.

metstar_me_20200925.m4a

(NE QLD)

Chatter of nesting colony

© ME

More Metallic Starling sound recordings are available at xeno-canto.org .

These pages are largely based on our own observations and those of our contributors. The structure of these bird pages is explained HERE. For more salient facts on any bird species please refer to a field guide.

Would you like to contribute photos or sound recordings to this site? If interested, please CLICK HERE. Credits to contributors are given HERE.

Disclaimer: Comments are always welcome. We give no guarantee that the information presented on these pages is always correct or up-to-date. External links are marked as such and we take no responsibility for the contents of external pages. All images on this site are protected by copyright & used by permission of the respective owners. If you wish to reproduce them or any of the material presented on this web site, please contact us: We hereby acknowledge the original custodians of the land which is described on these pages, including the Gomeroi/Gamilaraay people of the North-west Slopes and Plains of NSW, and the traditional owners of other lands and nations within this country. We acknowledge elders past, present and emerging. Sovereignty was never ceded.          Last updated: Sun, 3 September 2023, 20:48 +00:00