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.

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! 

The starlings are back

 At this initial sighting, there seemed to be more male than female Purple-backed Starlings present, or was I just unable to spot the female ones?  These are amazing birds that just sashayed about in flocks, and this time I managed to spot only 2 flocks, of about 20 or less.

06/2020

Lone starling

Tried as I could, I could only spot this lone Purple-backed Starling down foraging.  And then as suddenly I saw two flocks of about 20 and 30 each fly past.  Sometimes bird watching is indeed baffling!

Starling stragglers perhaps

Some Purple-backed/Daurian Starlings seemed to favour the taman this season as these have been seen to loiter here.  However the few turned out to be mainly immatures, and one wondered if these chose to remain here to conserve energy, and after all there's plenty for feeds too.

Insignificant Starling count

This was the last I saw of the Purple-backed or Daurian Starlings, again amidst the Asian Glossy Starlings.  Again I wonder if I have missed the massive flocks this year or should I be expecting a mass arrival soon?

The erstwhile Starling

I am still hoping for that rare sighting among the Daurian or Purple-backed Starlings that are now more and more regularly seen in the taman.
With these present sightings, I'm also looking forward to the spectacle of flocks whirling in the air, as captured last year, my posting at  http://rimbakiara.blogspot.com/2017/11/starlings-and-more-starlings.html.


It does take some effort to filter out these Daurians from the common local starlings as these birds tend to fly in and forage together, albeit momentarily, and then the Daurians will break away and fly off.

Seen from the right angle this is truly one gorgeous looking bird.