Makira Starling - BirdForum Opus

Alternative name: San Cristobal Starling

Identification

20cm. A rather small Starling.

Mostly blackish plumage, glossy purple green on crown, throat and upper breast, dark brown on mantle and rump
Tawny brown remiges, paler when worn
Dark brown tail
Red eye (sometimes orange or tawny)
Black bill and legs

Sexes similar. Juveniles are browner and less glossy.

Endemic to San Cristobal (Makira) in the southeast Solomon Islands.
Fairly common but with a tiny global range.

A monotypic species.
May form a superspecies with Brown-winged Starling and was also considered conspecific.

Forest, especially secondary forest. Least common on coast.

Usually seen in small groups of 3 - 8 birds, sometimes in flocks of up to 30 birds.

Feed on fruit.

A monogamous species, breeding solitary. The nest is spherical and made of sticks. It's placed in dense forest subcanopy.

A resident species.

Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Makira Starling. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 13 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Makira_Starling