Howdy, friends.  I hope everyone’s week went well.  This week’s bird is the Hildebrandt’s Starling, which is closely related to, you might say “in a superspecies with” the chestnut-bellied starling and Shelly’s starling.  Taken together, the range these birds occupy spans the African continent from east to west, from Senegal to Eretria.  These birds live in open woodlands and “thornbush country,” a phrase as simple as it is descriptive that just means “where there are a lot of bushes with thorns” at altitudes of 500 and 2,200 m (1,600 and 7,200 ft). The Hildebrandt starling feed primarily on the ground, eating insects and fruit, but has also been observed hawking (hunting on the wing) for flying termites.  It also likes to follow larger animals and opportunistically feed on any insects the big animal disturbs, which is a new hunting strategy to me.  Its striking iridescent plumage comes from the interference of reflected light rather than from pigment.  I couldn’t find a TL;DR on how that works, but remember watching a useful little video on youtube about it from PBS: http://tinyurl.com/467kpwmu.  Hildebrandt’s starling is a cavity nester, typically building nests in cavities abandoned by woodpeckers.  When these are not available, it has been observed building nests in fence posts, lampposts or telegraph poles.  Unlike the bird from a few weeks ago, which ate too many berries to raise the young of a parasite species, Hilderbrandt’s starling will unwittingly raise the young of the great spotted cuckoo. I just couldn’t get enough of our magically colorful new friend, so I included a couple of extra pictures this week.  

Links: http://tinyurl.com/bdzy48uy, http://tinyurl.com/4fjhan49,  http://tinyurl.com/4mb2488c