Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris) | Photos and ID

LCLeast ConcernFruit

ForestCavity nestSmall · 39 g

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 1 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 2 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 3 — Photo: Rafael Würtemberger · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 5 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 6 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 7 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 8 — Photo: avocat · CC BY 4.0

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 9 — Photo: (c) avocat, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

Narrow-tailed Starling (Poeoptera lugubris), photo 10 — Photo: (c) Antoine Thivolle, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC-BY

ID tip

The male is dark blue and the female is dark gray with chestnut-colored patches on the wings, visible in flight. Both sexes have long, narrow tails. Not a very noisy bird, this starling's vocalizations include shrill chirps, cries, and whistles.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Narrow-tailed Starling

One bar for each month, and every month is filled: this bird is recorded here in all twelve. The wide bar is July, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Narrow-tailed Starling

Regular rangeRare visitor

The map shades 8 countries with regular records, and 3 more in a lighter tone where the bird turns up only as a stray. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

Uganda Ghana Congo - Kinshasa Cameroon Angola Nigeria Côte d’Ivoire Gabon

Recorded as a rare visitor in Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Congo - Brazzaville.

About the Narrow-tailed Starling

The narrow-tailed starling is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is sparsely present across the African tropical rainforest.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

Stuhlmann's StarlingPoeoptera stuhlmanniStuhlmann's starling is a blue-black to blue-grey bird, with males appearing slightly darker and glossier on average than females.

Kenrick's StarlingPoeoptera kenrickiKenrick's starling is a medium-sized bird with male weighing 50g and females weighing 38g.

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