Rose-coloured Starling

The Rose-coloured Starling is an eye-catching bird combining bubblegum-pink body plumage with a glossy black head, breast, wings, and tail that gleam with purple and green iridescence. Breeding adults also sport a shaggy black crest on the back of the head. Non-breeding and juvenile birds are much duller, sandy-brown overall and easily overlooked among flocks of Common Starlings.

This species is famous for its irruptive, unpredictable breeding movements, appearing in huge numbers wherever locust or grasshopper populations boom, then vanishing from an area for years.

Key field marks

• Adult: bright pink body plumage contrasting sharply with glossy black head, breast, wings, and tail
• Shaggy black crest, most pronounced on breeding males
• Juvenile: plain sandy-brown overall with a pale yellowish bill, told from juvenile Common Starling by paler, sandier tone and stockier shape
• Stocky build with a shorter tail than Common Starling

Similar species

Adults are unmistakable. Juveniles can be confused with juvenile Common Starlings but are paler and sandier, with a less streamlined shape and a paler bill base.

Range

Breeds erratically across the steppes of south-eastern Europe and Central Asia, with breeding locations shifting year to year depending on food availability. Winters mainly on the Indian subcontinent.

Habitat

Open steppe, dry grassland, and farmland, often congregating wherever there are large insect outbreaks, particularly locusts and grasshoppers.

Migration

An irruptive and nomadic migrant; individuals sometimes wander far outside the normal range, turning up as a rare vagrant across western Europe.

Behavior

Highly gregarious, nesting in dense colonies that can number in the thousands, often triggered by an abundance of locusts or grasshoppers. Colonies may form and disperse rapidly as food supplies change.

Voice

Calls include harsh, chattering notes similar to the Common Starling; the song is a scratchy, unmusical warble mixed with clicks and squeaks.

Feeding

A voracious insect predator, especially of locust swarms and grasshoppers, which it also feeds to its young; also eats fruit, berries, and nectar outside the breeding season.

Nesting and breeding

Nests colonially in rock crevices, stone piles, and building cavities. Lays 3-6 pale blue eggs; colonies can form explosively within days of a locust outbreak being located.