41) ROSY STARLING (Pastor roseus)

Rosy Starling Dec 2010 Nalsarovar

41) Rosy Starling (Pastor roseus) #starling #birds

In my birds seen and photographed listing, the Rosy Starling is at 41st place.

The photograph of the solitary bird in the field was taken outside the Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary in December 2010. The pair of a bird on the tree was photographed outside the Thol lake in  March 2011. In both the places, the birds were a part of a large noisy flock. 

The Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary and the Thol lake are birding spots near Ahmedabad in the state of Gujarat in India.These photographs were taken with Fuji HS 10 Camera and stored in my computer without identification for a long time. Recently I bought books on birds and was able to identify these birds while perusing these books.

Rosy Starling March 2011 Thol

Almost the entire world population of Rosy Starling is said to migrate to India and Sri Lanka during winter.

The adult bird has a pink body, pale orange legs and bill. Its head, crest, neck, throat, wings and tail are glossy black. Its female has a short crest and lacks the sharp separation between pink and black colours in its body. During breeding season its male has a fluffed crest made of elongated head feathers. 

The bird is seen in large noisy flocks, gregarious and prefers open areas, pastures, farms, orchards and flowering trees.

Its food consists of fruits, berries, flower-nectar, cereal grains as well as insects like Locusts, grasshoppers and beetles.

Rosy Starling March 2011 Thol

Please feel free to correct me if the identification of the bird is incorrect. I also welcome more information about this bird.

Reference:

1) Birds of the Indian Subcontinent by Richard Grimmett, Carol Inskipp and Tim Inskipp 

2) Birds of South Asia, The Ripley guide by Pamela C. Rasmussen and John C Anderton

3) The Book of Indian Birds by Salim Ali

4) A Pictorial Field Guide to Birds of India by Bikram Grewal, Sumit Sen, Sarwandeep Singh, Nikhil Devasar and Garima Bhatia

5) The Wikipedia