White-cheeked Starling
White-cheeked Starling
Spodiopsar cineraceus
Also known as: Grey Starling · Gray Starling
Aves
UNCOMMON

Stats

Lifespan
3-10 yrs
Size
Medium
Diet
Omnivore
Activity
Diurnal
Social
Flock
Biome
Temperate woodland
Range
East Asia
Movement
Flight
Breeding
Egg-laying
Defense
Group defense
Status
Uncommon

About

The White-cheeked Starling is a stocky, dark grey-brown songbird from East Asia, easily spotted by the pale patch on its cheek and its bright orange-yellow bill. Outside the breeding season it forms huge, noisy communal roosts, sometimes gathering by the tens of thousands in city trees at dusk.

Life cycle

  1. 1.
    egg
    A small clutch of speckled eggs is incubated in a cup nest, turned and kept warm by the parent.
  2. 2.
    hatchling
    A pink, blind hatchling is fed by its parents in the nest, gaping its bill at every visit.
  3. 3.
    juvenile
    A feathered juvenile fledges from the nest, learning to fly and to forage close to its parents.
  4. 4.
    adult
    Fully grown with adult plumage and song.

Learn more

Taxonomy

Kingdom
Animalia
Phylum
Chordata
Class
Aves
Order
Passeriformes
Family
Sturnidae
Genus
Spodiopsar
Species
Spodiopsar cineraceus