Editing Chestnut-tailed starling

{{Short description|Species of bird}}
{{Speciesbox
| name = Chestnut-tailed starling
| image = Chestnut-tailed starling, Satchari National Park 01.jpg
| image_caption = Chestnut-tailed starling in [[Satchari National Park]]
| status = LC
| status_ref = <ref name=iucn>{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International |year=2016 |title=''Sturnia malabarica'' |page=e.T22710858A94263973 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22710858A94263973.en}}</ref>
| status_system = IUCN3.1
| genus = Sturnia
| species = malabarica
| authority  = ([[Johann Friedrich Gmelin|Gmelin]], 1789)
| synonyms = ''Temenuchus malabaricus''
| range_map = Chestnut-tailed Starling Range.jpg
| range_map_caption = {{legend0|#C6514A|approximate range|outline=gray}}
}}

The '''chestnut-tailed starling''' ('''''Sturnia malabarica'''''), also called '''grey-headed starling''' and '''grey-headed myna''' is a member of the [[starling]] family. It is a resident or partially migratory species found in wooded habitats in [[India]] and [[Southeast Asia]]. The species name is after the distribution of a former subspecies in the [[Malabar (Northern Kerala)|Malabar]] region. While the chestnut-tailed starling is a winter visitor to peninsular India, the closely related resident breeding population with a white head is now treated as a full species, the [[Malabar starling]] (''Sturnia blythii'').

==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/>

==Description==
The adults have a total length of approximately {{convert|20|cm|in|abbr=on}}. They have grey upperparts and blackish [[remiges]], but the colour of the remaining plumage depends on the subspecies. In the nominate subspecies and ''blythii'', the underparts (incl. undertail) are rufous, but in ''nemoricola'' the underparts are whitish tinged rufous, especially on the flanks and crissum (the undertail [[Covert feather|coverts]] surrounding the [[cloaca]]). The nominate and ''nemoricola'' have a light grey head with whitish streaking (especially on crown and collar region). Both subspecies have white [[Iris (anatomy)|irises]] and a yellow bill with a pale blue base. The sexes are similar, but [[Juvenile (organism)|juveniles]] have whitish underparts and just chestnut tips to the tail feathers.

==Behaviour==
The chestnut-tailed starling's nest is typically found in open woodland and cultivation, and it builds a nest in an old barbet or woodpecker hole in a tree-trunk, {{convert|3-12|m|ft|abbr=on}} up. The normal clutch is 3-5 eggs, pale blue, unmarked. The nesting season is usually March to June.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Ali|first=S. |title=The Book of Indian Birds |publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Revised by J.C. Daniel |year=2012|isbn=978-0195665239 |edition=13th |pages=218}}</ref>

Like most starlings, it is fairly [[omnivorous]], eating fruit, nectar and insects. They fly in tight flocks and often rapidly change directions with great synchrony.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Grimmett, Richard; Inskipp, Carol, Inskipp, Tim & Byers, Clive (1999): ''Birds of India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives''. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.. <small>{{ISBN|0-691-04910-6}}</small>
*Rasmussen, Pamela C. & Anderton John C. (2005): ''Birds of South Asia: The Ripley Guide''. Smithsonian Institution and Lynx Edicions. <small>{{ISBN|84-87334-67-9}}</small>
*Zuccon D, Cibois A, Pasquet E, Ericson PG. (2006) Nuclear and mitochondrial sequence data reveal the major lineages of starlings, mynas and related taxa. Mol Phylogenet Evol. 41(2):333-44.

{{Taxonbar|from=Q1048674}}

[[Category:Sturnia|chestnut-tailed starling]]
[[Category:Birds of Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Birds of South China]]
[[Category:Birds of South Asia]]
[[Category:Birds of Southeast Asia]]
[[Category:Birds described in 1789|chestnut-tailed starling]]
[[Category:Taxa named by Johann Friedrich Gmelin|chestnut-tailed starling]]
[[Category:Articles containing video clips]]