Stats

Lifespan: 2-15 yrs
Size: Small
Diet: Omnivore
Activity: Diurnal
Social: Flock
Biome: Temperate grassland
Range: Eurasia
Movement: Flight
Breeding: Egg-laying
Defense: Herd Safety
Status: Common

About

A glossy black songbird whose plumage shimmers with iridescent green and purple, speckled with white star-like flecks in winter. Famed mimics, starlings can imitate car alarms, ringtones, and the calls of dozens of other bird species.

Life cycle

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