University student appeals for information on red-winged starling sightings
If you know of any Red-winged starlings in your area, or if you have these birds in your garden, at your work, or school it would be appreciated if you could get in touch with Kyrone Josiah or Colleen Downs.
Red-winged starlings (Onychognathus morio) are birds native to the continent of Africa, with its distribution found to be mostly on the eastern side of the continent extending to South Africa. They are sexually dimorphic with males having shiny black plumage with reddish-brown flight feathers whilst the females differ morphologically in that they have light grey heads and the upper breast area of the body is greyish in colour.
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They have a wide habitat tolerance with populations been found in wetland environments to drier environment’s such as savannah and grassland biomes. This species is omnivorous and has been observed to consume a wide range of seeds, berries, invertebrates and even nectar from plants. In urban areas they may be seen close to busy areas such as malls where they can feed on “scraps” from humans. It is monogamous and produces two broods per a season, laying two to four eggs at a time. in the natural environment, they nest on cliffs in mountainous areas and may even make use of leaf bases of palm trees in coastal areas. Some observations of Red-winged starlings in urban areas indicate that they nest on top of or on the sides of tall buildings and may even build nests in rooftops and awnings.
As part of an Honours project in the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus, Kyrone Josiah is investigating the increase in Red-winged starling sightings in urban areas of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
We are requesting observational information on Red-winged starlings, particularly where they are seen frequently.
If you know of any Red-winged starlings in your area, or if you have these birds in your garden, at your work, or school etc., we would really appreciate it you could let us know. Photographs of birds (Red-winged starlings) seen and the geographical location (GPS points) would also be valuable.
Please contact Kyrone Josiah (email: 214560913@stu.ukzn.ac.za) or Professor Colleen Downs: Downs@ukzn.ac.za or contact 033 260 5127 (w) at the School of Life Sciences, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg campus, Scottsville.
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