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Rosy Starlings are about the size of a Common Blackbird. The two sexes are similar, but there are small differences in breeding plumage. During the breeding season the entire head, including its long crest, neck and bib, is glossy black. Also the wings, the tail and narrow stripes from the sides of the tail to the upper legs are glossy black. The transition between pink and black is sharper in males than in females. The bill is pink with a dark base. In eclipse the parts that are pink in breeding plumage fade into a dull, slightly vermiculated pinkish-grey, while the black parts remain black. The bill is then pale bluish-grey. The irises of both sexes are dark. Legs and feet are greyish-pink. Juveniles more mostly brownish-grey, with dark-grey flight feathers. They have a pale-yellow lower mandible and otherwise grey bill.

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 Rosy Starling is available HERE .

Rosy Starlings opportunistically follow eruptions of grasshoppers and other insects. While sometimes found in Iceland, western and central Europe, their core range extends from south-eastern Europe, via Asia Minor, southern and central Asia (north of the Himalayas) and Arabia, to the Indian subcontinent and onwards into parts of South-east Asia.

In Europe, Rosy Starlings are occasionally found in large parts of western and central Europe, even parts of Scandinavia, but usually they stay in south-eastern Europe, with a range extending from the Balkans and Greece to the northern and western shoreline of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea.

Rosy Starlings can be found in steppe, semi-desert and desert. As a replacement in country inhabited by humans, they also live on agricultural land.

A. Sarok reports spotting a Rosy Starling in Vojvodina, Serbia, some time between 2010 and 2024. All sighting and photographic information presented on this page has kindly been contributed by A. Sarok.