Stats

Lifespan

8-15 yrs

Size

Medium

Diet

Omnivore

Activity

Diurnal

Social

Flock

Biome

Tropical dry shrubland

Range

East Africa

Movement

Flight

Breeding

Egg-laying

Defense

Speed

Status

Rare

About

The Somali Starling is a glossy black bird with vivid chestnut-rufous primary wing patches that flash in flight. It inhabits rocky cliffs and gorges across the Horn of Africa and Yemen, foraging on fruit and invertebrates in small noisy flocks.

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.

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Taxonomy

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Aves

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Sturnidae

Genus

Onychognathus

Species

Onychognathus blythii