Speculipastor bicolor
The Magpie Starling, Speculipastor bicolor, is a strikingly beautiful, medium-sized passerine endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa. Measuring approximately 23-26 cm in length with a wingspan of 35-40 cm and weighing 60-80g, its plumage presents a stark contrast: intensely glossy black upperparts, wings, and a long, graduated tail, against pristine white underparts. The black feathers exhibit a brilliant violet-blue iridescence in direct sunlight, becoming more bronzed on the wing and tail coverts. K...
Favors open deciduous woodlands, acacia savannas, and the edges of cultivation, primarily at elevations between 500 and 2000 meters above sea level.
Primarily insectivorous, consuming beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, and termites; supplements its diet with a variety of wild fruits, berries, and occasionally small lizards.
Magpie Starlings are highly gregarious and diurnal, forming large, noisy communal roosts in dense trees outside the breeding season, often numbering in the thousands. Foraging occurs mostly on the ground, where they glean insects and fruits, frequently following large mammals or livestock to capt...
The Magpie Starling is widely distributed across Sub-Saharan Africa, primarily inhabiting the eastern and southern parts of the continent. Its breeding range extends from eastern Ethiopia and Somalia south through Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, reaching northeastern Sout...
Least Concern
- Known for its uncanny ability to mimic over two dozen other bird species, including raptor calls, which it uses to deter smaller predators. - Forms massive communal roosts of several thousand individuals during the non-breeding season, creating spectacular aerial displays at dusk. - The iridesc...