The Zoochat Photographic Guide To The Muscicapoidea (Part II) - Thrushes, Starlings and Allies

Neocichla


Babbling Starling
(Neocichla gutturalis)

The range of this species represents a pair of widely-disjunct populations; throughout south-central Angola and from west-central Tanzania into eastern Zambia and northwest Malawi.

Two subspecies recognised:

N. g. gutturalis
N. g. angusta


No photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.
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Grafisia


White-collared Starling
(Grafisia torquata)

The range of this species extends in a highly-fragmented and patchy distribution from northern and central Cameroon in the west to northeast DRC in the east.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.
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Speculipastor


Magpie Starling
(Speculipastor bicolor)

The range of this species extends from southeast Ethiopia and Somalia into eastern Uganda in the west and northernmost Tanzania in the south; populations south of central Kenya and southernmost Somalia are non-breeding winter visitors.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gentle lemur

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Pholia


Sharpe's Starling
(Pholia sharpii)

The range of this species extends in a highly-fragmented and patchy distribution from southeast South Sudan and Ethiopia in the north to southwest Tanzania in the south.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.
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Poeoptera


Stuhlmann's Starling
(Poeoptera stuhlmanni)

The range of this species extends in a highly-fragmented and patchy distribution from southwest Ethiopia in the north to the Albertine Rift and west-central Tanzania in the south.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Kenrick's Starling
(Poeoptera kenricki)

The range of this species extends through mountain habitats of central Kenya and the Eastern Arc Mountains of northeast and central Tanzania.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Narrow-tailed Starling
(Poeoptera lugubris)

The range of this species extends in a highly-fragmented and patchy distribution throughout West Africa and the Congo Basin, from northern Sierra Leone in the west to northeast DRC in the east, and south to northwest Angola.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Abbott's Starling
(Poeoptera femoralis)

The range of this species is restricted to the highland forests of south-central Kenya and northeast Tanzania.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.
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The photo I used for that species wasn't taken at Jurong, and melanopterus is monotypic - so not sure what your point is :p
The photo of the tricolor was taken at Jurong.

A. melanopterus was split in three (melanopterus, tertius, tricolor) purely on the basis of colouration, using the Tobias Criteria, and it has been widely accepted largely because that is how it is treated in the HBW. Previously they were subspecies.

The photo of the tricolor certainly looks like a hybrid, and not like a pure bird.
 
The photo of the tricolor was taken at Jurong.

A. melanopterus was split in three (melanopterus, tertius, tricolor) purely on the basis of colouration, using the Tobias Criteria, and it has been widely accepted largely because that is how it is treated in the HBW. Previously they were subspecies.

The photo of the tricolor certainly looks like a hybrid, and not like a pure bird.

This has always striked me as a bad split.

I always thought the entire (small?) captive population comprised of hybrids/unknown pedigree animals.

~Thylo
 
The photo of the tricolor was taken at Jurong.

Yeah, I knew what was meant ;) but if Erythrogaster can implicitly refuse to follow the taxonomy used in the thread whilst correcting me, I can be overly-literal when replying.

The photo of the tricolor certainly looks like a hybrid, and not like a pure bird.

Sounds fair enough; still, it's the best we have unless you've been fortunate enough to get photos of a better-looking one at some point or another :P there's a better chance of this than there is for tertius, at any rate.

I always thought the entire (small?) captive population comprised of hybrids/unknown pedigree animals.

As I understand the situation, the wild population of melanopterus has fallen drastically in the last decade or so, and hence this species now has greater value in the cage-bird trade - with the net result that tricolor and tertius (especially the latter) are being bred with this species to increase the value of the offspring. Due to the fact this is a relatively-recent development, I believe there *are* pure melanopterus in captivity - the population which was at Zoo Berlin until 2012 was certainly pure, although I don't know about the newly-arrived stock.
 
The 'melanopterus' at jurong - are hybrids between the three species formerly listed under melanopterus (tertius and tricolor). Even talk previously of these birds hybridizing with other species at Jurongg.
 
The 'melanopterus' at jurong - are hybrids between the three species formerly listed under melanopterus (tertius and tricolor). Even talk previously of these birds hybridizing with other species at Jurongg.

Suggestion; rather than repeating yourself when I have already addressed the information at hand (by noting that even if the birds identified as tricolor at Jurong are indeed impure, a matter on which I actually agree with you, the image is still the best we have available to us) and generally taking every opportunity to nit-pick and question my knowledge and/or judgement..... since you regularly imply a massive amount of experience and knowledge of what collections keep which bird taxa worldwide, and when their claims are inaccurate, you must have taken many photographs of various species or subspecies which are either absent from the gallery or lacking decent images. Take this as a cordial invitation to root around in your archives for any shots which may be helpful either in this thread or one of the prior ones; I suspect your help will be especially useful in the polishing-up of the Bird-of-Paradise and Corvid threads, as these contain a fair few gaps which *have* been held in captivity recently, or indeed in the present day.
 
I'm not a photographer - I enjoy these threads - just think they should be factually accurate.

I'll refrain from input in future.
 
even if the birds identified as tricolor at Jurong are indeed impure, a matter on which I actually agree with you, the image is still the best we have available to us
If the bird is a hybrid then it shouldn't be used to illustrate that species. That would be like using a photo of a generic-zoo-tiger in the place of a Bengal Tiger because "it is the best we have available". But even more so when there is nothing in the post for that species to say that the bird/tiger/whatever is not actually a real representative of that form.

I also agree with Erythrogaster on the "G. contra superciliaris" - I can't see any reason to treat it as that, especially given the state of the individual. It seems to basically be a guess on your part presented as fact.
 
I'm not a photographer - I enjoy these threads - just think they should be factually accurate.

I'll refrain from input in future.

And I want them to be factually accurate too :) so you need not refrain from giving feedback; I was merely a little irked to find this morning that you'd chosen to reply to my reason for retaining the hybrid shot by ignoring it and repeating yourself. Or to summarize, that the conversation went like this;

A: The tricolor at Jurong is impure.
B: I agree, but it is the best we have right now.
A: The tricolor at Jurong is impure.


As for your other point - you need not be a photographer to have something to contribute in that regard, unless you have literally never seen and photographed anything, as every little bit helps :)
 
That would be like using a photo of a generic-zoo-tiger in the place of a Bengal Tiger because "it is the best we have available".

Well, no - because that would be treating a non-subspecific as a pure subspecific, as opposed to the difference between a sensu lato species and a sensu stricto species.

I can't see any reason to treat it as that, especially given the state of the individual

State of the individual?

Anyhow - will go with your opinion on this, given you probably have seen the species more often than I have. That said:

It seems to basically be a guess on your part presented as fact.

Not exactly an uneducated guess, given the fact it is based on a) having seen both the "old" individual of known origin and the "new" individual and hence having a basis for comparison and b) the comparative notes on each subspecies provided on HBW, in particular the mention that the forehead and crown of superciliaris is much more streaked than in floweri, and that the latter subspecies has glossy black plumage.

In any case, a fair amount of these threads rely on educated guesswork and deduction.
 
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Well, no - because that would be treating a non-subspecific as a pure subspecific, as opposed to the difference between a sensu lato species and a sensu stricto species.
Just replace "Bengal Tiger" with "Sumatran Tiger" then. If following the tiger split into two species you wouldn't use a photo of a hybrid between Sumatran and, say, Siberian to illustrate the Sumatran (or if you did, you would presumably make it clear it wasn't pure). If the bird in question is a hybrid, as it appears to be, then it is not just a difference between sensu lato and sensu stricto, it is a hybrid between two of those forms whether they are treated as subspecies or full species - i.e. it is not a valid representation of tricolor.

(And, to be clear about the above, I am not advocating following the tiger split into two species, because that is just stupid...)
 
(And, to be clear about the above, I am not advocating following the tiger split into two species, because that is just stupid...)

A lot less stupid, I would contend, than the policy put forward by the recent feline taxonomy reassessment to lump *all* mainland tigers into one subspecies, and retain Sumatran as a distinct subspecies :P which strikes me as a move taken to a) maintain monophyly whilst b) avoiding a split of Sumatran, even if it does mean claiming that Indochinese and Siberian Tiger are the same thing.

Anyhow, I edited the thread to remove the photograph in question last night.
 
A lot less stupid, I would contend, than the policy put forward by the recent feline taxonomy reassessment to lump *all* mainland tigers into one subspecies, and retain Sumatran as a distinct subspecies :p which strikes me as a move taken to a) maintain monophyly whilst b) avoiding a split of Sumatran, even if it does mean claiming that Indochinese and Siberian Tiger are the same thing.

Anyhow, I edited the thread to remove the photograph in question last night.

While simultaneously claiming that they are not the same thing :p

~Thylo
 
Lamprotornis


Hildebrandt's Starling
(Lamprotornis hildebrandti)

The range of this species extends from north-central Kenya, south to north-central Tanzania.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Hix

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Shelley's Starling
(Lamprotornis shelleyi)

The range of this species extends from eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia, south to northeast Tanzania and southeast Kenya; populations in southeast and southern Ethiopia, and adjacent extreme southeast South Sudan, are resident with those populations to the north representing summer breeding populations, and those to the south representing wintering populations.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Burchell's Starling
(Lamprotornis australis)

The range of this species extends throughout south-central Africa, from southern Angola south to east-central Namibia, and east from here through southwest Zambia and Botswana to north-central South Africa; a disjunct population exists in Swaziland and adjacent northeast South Africa and southernmost Mozambique.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Maguari

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Long-tailed Glossy Starling
(Lamprotornis caudatus)

The range of this species extends throughout the Sahel of sub-Saharan Africa from southern Mauritania and Senegal in the west to south-central Sudan and southwest South Sudan in the east.

Monotypic.

Photo by @savethelephant

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Rüppell's Starling
(Lamprotornis purpuroptera)

The range of this species extends patchily throughout much of east-central Africa from southeast Sudan and Eritrea in the north to Rwanda, Burundi and northwest Tanzania in the south.

Two subspecies recognised:

L. p. aeneocephalus
- photo by @ThylacineAlive

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L. p. purpuroptera


Benguela Long-tailed Starling
(Lamprotornis benguelensis)

The range of this species is restricted to the western escarpment of southwest Angola.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Cunene Long-tailed Starling
(Lamprotornis violacior)

The range of this species is restricted to southwest Angola and immediately-adjacent northwest Namibia.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Meves's Long-tailed Starling
(Lamprotornis mevesii)

The range of this species extends patchily throughout south-central Africa, from northeast Zambia in the north to southernmost Zimbabwe and northernmost South Africa in the south, and west to southeast Angola.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Vision

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Ashy Starling
(Lamprotornis unicolor)

The range of this species is restricted to the central interior of Tanzania.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Hix

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Principe Starling
(Lamprotornis ornatus)

Endemic to Principe Island.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Splendid Starling
(Lamprotornis splendidus)

The range of this species extends throughout western and central Africa, from Senegal in the west to central Uganda in the east, and south to northern Angola and north-central Zambia; a disjunct population exists in southwest Ethiopia and adjacent southeast South Sudan.

Four subspecies are recognised:

L. s. chrysonotis
L. s. splendidus
L. s. lessoni
L. s. bailundensis


Photo by @Tomek

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Golden-breasted Starling
(Lamprotornis regius)

The range of this species extends from eastern Ethiopia and northern Somalia, south to northeast Tanzania.

Monotypic.

Photo by @ronnienl

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Superb Starling
(Lamprotornis superbus)

The range of this species extends throughout much of eastern Africa, from central Ethiopia and northern Somalia in the north, to south-central Tanzania in the south.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Hix

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Chestnut-bellied Starling
(Lamprotornis pulcher)

The range of this species extends throughout the Sahel of sub-Saharan Africa, from southern Mauritania and Senegal in the west to the Red Sea coastline of Sudan and Eritrea in the east.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


African Pied Starling
(Lamprotornis bicolor)

The range of this species extends throughout much of South Africa barring the northernmost and easternmost regions of the country, and into Lesotho and the extreme west of Swaziland.

Monotypic.

Photo by @LSouthern

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White-crowned Starling
(Lamprotornis albicapillus)

The range of this species extends throughout northwest Somalia and southeast Ethiopia, and into northern Kenya.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Fischer's Starling
(Lamprotornis fischeri)

The range of this species extends from southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia in the north, to northeast Tanzania in the south.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Sharp-tailed Starling
(Lamprotornis acuticaudus)

The range of this species extends throughout much of south-central Africa, from central Angola in the west to southeast DRC and northern Zambia in the east, and south into northwest Botswana.

Two subspecies recognised:

L. a. acuticaudus
L. a. ecki


No photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Lesser Blue-eared Starling (Lamprotornis chloropterus)

The range of this species represents a pair of disjunct populations; throughout the Sahel and areas of sub-Saharan Africa directly to the south, from Senegal in the west to Eritrea and northern Ethiopia in the east and south to central Uganda; and from south-central Tanzania in the north to Zimbabwe and west-central Mozambique in the south.

Two subspecies recognised:

L. c. chloropterus
- photo by @alexkant

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L. c. elisabeth



Purple Starling
(Lamprotornis purpureus)

The range of this species extends throughout much of the Sahel, from southern Mauritania and Senegal in the west to southwest Sudan in the east, and from here southeast through South Sudan into Uganda.

Monotypic.

Photo by @SMR

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Bronze-tailed Starling (Lamprotornis chalcurus)

The range of this species extends throughout much of western and central Africa, from Senegal and Guinea-Bissau in the west to South Sudan and northern Uganda in the east.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.


Cape Starling
(Lamprotornis nitens)

The range of this species extends throughout much of southern Africa, from northwest Angola in the west to central Zimbabwe in the east, and south into the majority of South Africa barring the southern and southwest Cape.

Monotypic.

Photo by @Vision

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Greater Blue-eared Starling
(Lamprotornis chalybaeus)

The range of this species extends throughout the Sahel from southern Mauritania and Senegal in the west to Eritrea and northwest Ethiopia in the east, south throughout eastern Africa to southernmost Mozambique and northeast South Africa, and west from here into northwest Namibia and southwest Angola.

Four subspecies recognised:

L. c. chalybaeus
- photo by @LaughingDove

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L. c. cyaniventris
- photo by @Maguari

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L. c. sycobius
L. c. nordmanni
- photo by @Kudu21

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Emerald Starling
(Lamprotornis iris)

The range of this species extends patchily through West Africa from southern Guinea to central Ivory Coast.

Monotypic.

Photo by @gentle lemur

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Fischer's Starling (Lamprotornis fischeri)

The range of this species extends from southern Somalia and southeast Ethiopia in the north, to northeast Tanzania in the south.

Monotypic; no photographs of this species are present in the Zoochat gallery.

If ZTL is to be believed - always a dicey proposition - this species is held at Brno; don't suppose you have any photographs @HOMIN96 ?
 
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