Editing Chestnut-tailed starling (section)

==Taxonomy==
The chestnut-tailed starling was [[Species description|formally described]] in 1789 by the German naturalist [[Johann Friedrich Gmelin]] in his revised and expanded edition of [[Carl Linnaeus]]'s ''[[Systema Naturae]]''. He placed it with the thrushes in the [[genus]] ''[[Turdus]]'' and coined the [[binomial nomenclature|binomial name]] ''Turdus malabaricus''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Gmelin | first=Johann Friedrich | author-link=Johann Friedrich Gmelin| year=1789 | title=Systema naturae per regna tria naturae : secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis | edition=13th | volume=1, Part 2 | language=Latin | location=Lipsiae [Leipzig] | publisher=Georg. Emanuel. Beer | page=816 | url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/2656311 }}</ref> Gmelin based his account on the "Le Martin Vieillard de la côte de Malabar" that had been described in 1782 by the French naturalist [[Pierre Sonnerat]] in his book ''Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine''.<ref>{{ cite book | last=Sonnerat | first=Pierre | author-link=Pierre Sonnerat | date=1782 | title=Voyage aux Indes orientales et à la Chine, fait par ordre du Roi, depuis 1774 jusqu'en 1782 | volume=2 | language=French | location=Paris | publisher=Chez l'Auteur | page=195 | url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k15182388/f280.item }}</ref>

The chestnut-tailed starling was formerly placed in the genus ''[[Sturnus]]''. A [[molecular phylogenetic]] study published in 2008 found that the genus was [[polyphyletic]].<ref name=zuccon>{{Cite journal | last1=Zuccon | first1=D. | last2=Pasquet | first2=E. | last3=Ericson | first3=P.G.P. | date=2008 | title=Phylogenetic relationships among Palearctic–Oriental starlings and mynas (genera ''Sturnus'' and ''Acridotheres'': Sturnidae) | journal=Zoologica Scripta | volume=37 | issue=5 | pages=469–481 | doi=10.1111/j.1463-6409.2008.00339.x}}</ref> In the reoganization to create [[monotypic]] genera, the chestnut-tailed starling was one of five starlings moved to the resurrected genus ''[[Sturnia]]'' that had been introduced in 1837 by [[René Lesson]].<ref name=ioc>{{cite web| editor1-last=Gill | editor1-first=Frank | editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) | editor2-last=Donsker | editor2-first=David | editor3-last=Rasmussen | editor3-first=Pamela | editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen | date=July 2023 | title=Nuthatches, Wallcreeper, treecreepers, mockingbirds, starlings, oxpeckers | work=IOC World Bird List Version 13.2 | url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/nuthatch/  | publisher=International Ornithologists' Union | access-date=14 August 2023 }}</ref>

Two [[subspecies]] are recognised:<ref name=ioc/>
* ''S. m. malabarica'' ([[Johann Friedrich Gmelin|Gmelin, JF]], 1789) – India (except southwest, northeast), south Nepal and Bangladesh
* ''S. m. nemoricola'' [[Thomas C. Jerdon|Jerdon]], 1862 – south Assam (northeast India) and Myanmar to north, central Indochina

Both the [[nominate subspecies]] and ''nemoricola'' are known to perform some poorly understood movements (e.g., ''S. m. malabarica'' has been recorded from [[Pakistan]] and in central and southern India).

The [[taxon]] ''blythii'' is now usually (e.g. Rasmussen & Anderton, 2005) considered a valid species, the [[Malabar starling]] or white-headed myna (''Sturnia blythii''), instead of a subspecies of ''Sturnia malabarica''. As ''S. m. malabarica'' only visits the range of ''blythii'' during the non-breeding period (winter), the two are not known to [[interbreed]]. However, a molecular study found the genetic divergence between ''S. blythii'' not significantly greater (between 0.2% and 0.8%) than between the sisters ''S. m. malabarica'' of northern India and ''S. m. nemoricola'' of Burma and Vietnam.<ref name=zuccon/>