European Starling
Common Starling
Adult S. v. vulgaris in breeding plumage (probable male)
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Aves
Order:
Passeriformes
Family:
Sturnidae
Genus:
Sturnus
Species:
S. vulgaris
Binomial name
Sturnus vulgaris
Linnaeus, 1758
Native: yellow, breeding summer visitor; dark green, resident
breeding; blue, wintering.
Introduced: light yellow, breeding summer visitor; light green,
resident breeding.
The European Starling, Common Starling
or just Starling, (Sturnus vulgaris), is a pas-
serine bird in the family Sturnidae.
This species of starling is native to most of
temperate Europe and western Asia. It is res-
ident in southern and western Europe and
southwestern Asia, while northeastern popu-
lations migrate south and west in winter to
these regions, and also further south to areas
where it does not breed in Iberia and north
Africa. It has also been introduced to Aus-
tralia, New Zealand, North America, and
South Africa.
Taxonomy
This is the type species of the genus Sturnus.
More recently, it is increasingly being accep-
ted that this is not a natural evolutionary
group but an evolutionary grade assembling
a number of more-or-less distantly related
Eurasian starlings which look a bit alike. Un-
iting such different birds such as European,
Vinous-breasted, and Rosy Starlings in one
genus has always been controversial, and it
is likely the more distinct species will soon be
separated again. Ultimately, the European
and Spotless starlings, which form a super-
species, might be the only species retained in
Sturnus.[1]
There are several subspecies of
the
European Starling, mainly distinguishable by
geographic range and the iridescence of
adult plumage; much of the variation is clin-
al, with extensive intergradation between the
subspecies. Acceptance of different subspe-
cies
varies between different
authorit-
ies.[2][3][4][5]
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
European Starling
1
• Sturnus vulgaris vulgaris Linnae