ComingsBirds.com/Birdgroups S-Z

To the Beauty of Birds

The European Starling Sturmus vulgaris is another of the birds in the ”It’s just a..” class. Even though its species name, vulgaris, sounds bad, in this context it means “common” rather than distasteful. I believe its beauty if under-rated. Close up photos with the sun just right (1588, 1590) shows the beautiful display of subtle iridescent light and dark blue and purple with white spots below and oranges spots above.

The remaining photos were taken along the estuary at Yachats Road State Park, Yachats, OR. I don’t generally think of starlings as shore birds but I found the all over the Pacific shoreline. These photos show two features rarely discussed for starlings – the brown molting pattern of the head and the pink spot beneath the eye (0372, 0373).

Photos 1951 to 1961 were taken on the groounds of the Auckland Zoo, New Zealand.

European Starling