Daurian Starling

Just a small family of Daurian Starlings, mixing with Asian glossy starlings.

A female, probably parent, with two sub-adults.

And then another

Not all fruits are edible, yet.

The family of three ....

Lacking flocks this round

 They've finally made their appearance in the taman but this was certainly not the flock that I had expected, less than 50 I reckoned.

The Purple-backed or Daurian Starlings (Agropsar sturninus) are always a sight to behold if they appear in flocks of hundreds which they did here years back.

And as usual these birds do travel as families, male, female, old and young.  With only one tree fruiting this time, it's only expected that these birds would not remain here for more days.

It looked like it's only pairs that I could get from this flock.

Time for a snooze.

Another pair.

I wished, like you, the rest would come further down too!

The three that were only slightly higher up.

The daurians have landed!

 They came unexpectedly as they have not been seen for a while as if they could sense the expansive Ficus benjamina heavy with ripening fruits, and it was easily a flock of fiftyish.

The Daurian Starlings (Agropsar sturninus) are easily one of my favourite migrant birds to watch out for by virtue of their beauty in numbers and flight patterns except that their numbers sighted here seemed to have dwindled over the years.

And they were simply spoilt for choice, and I couldn't stop clicking despite standing at the same spot under the blazing sun as they kept coming although when feeding these birds hardly come together.  And at the slightest approach of a walker, they automatically came together and fled.

22/2022

Unfortunately not all were ripe for the picking yet so perhaps this abundance could keep these birds here for a while.

And then it's rest and preen in between feeds and intermittent flights.

And a pair that looks like a male on the left and a female that's more brownish even on the underpart, the best way to determine is of course by looking at the upperpart where the male is more glossy and deeply patterned and coloured.

Perhaps among these starlings ...

 The Daurian Starlings are still around.  They come and they go. they gather and they disperse.  And the pattern repeats.

However the morning's gathering was miniscule by comparison as I recalled watching hundreds sashaying before over the taman.

It took some scrutiny but there was always hope that there could perhaps be an odd one among the flock!