White-collared starling

The white-collared starling (Grafisia torquata) is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is monotypic within the genus Grafisia.[4] It is found in Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Gabon.[1]

White-collared starling
male perched in a tree.
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Aves
Order: Passeriformes
Family: Sturnidae
Genus: Grafisia
Bates, 1926[2]
Species:
G. torquata
Binomial name
Grafisia torquata
(Reichenow, 1909)[3]

Taxonomy

The species was first identified by Anton Reichenow and named Spreo torquatus, from the Latin for "torquated", referring to the coloration around the neck of the male.[3] It was later identified independently by James Chapin in 1913 in the Belgian Congo as Stilbopsar leucothorax,[5] from the Greek λευκός (meaning "white") and θώραξ (meaning "chest"), again referring to its white collar. They were placed into its current genus Grafisia by George Latimer Bates in 1926, based on substantial differences between the white-collared starling and members of either Spreo or Stilbopsar.[2]

Description

White-collared starlings are dimorphic in adulthood, with sexual differences in both size and coloration. Adult males have a glossy-black plumage save for a white patch on the chest which extends up to the wings; their bill and legs are black and a bright yellow iris. Adult females are primarily grey with black-tipped wing and tail feathers; the feathers on its crown and rump have blue-black tips. Juveniles and subadults tend to resemble the female, but with more brownish-grey feathers on their ventral plumage.[6]

The white-collared starling has been reported to have both a chirruping and a call of three short whistled notes.[7]

Behavior

White-collared starlings are generally found in open woodland and seem to stay in the tops of high trees, but have also been reported in montane grasslands in Cameroon[8] They are known to feed on insects, berries,[7] wild figs and the fruit of musanga[5] and macaranga assass trees.[9]

They have been known to travel in pairs or small groups (4-10),[10] and in at least one case in a flock of more than 100 birds in June. Nest-building activity has been observed in March, and males collected at that time were found to have large testes;[11] these facts combined with the appearance of juvenile species between May and July suggest that breeding occurs in the first half of the year. In one instance, a male was seen to make short circular flights from a conspicuous pearch, which was interpreted as a courtship display.[6][7]

References
  1. BirdLife International (2012). "Grafisia torquata". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2012. Retrieved 26 November 2013.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  2. Bates, George Latimer (1926). "Mr G.L. Bates described a new genus of starling from N.W. Cameroon". Bulletin of the British Ornithologists' Club. 46: 104. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  3. Reichenow, Anton (1909). "Neue Arten von Kamerun". Ornithologische Monatsberichte. 17: 140. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  4. "ITIS Report: Grafisia". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 28 June 2012.
  5. Chapin, James P. (1954). "The birds of the Belgian Congo Part 4". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 75b: 137–138. hdl:2246/1643.
  6. Feare, Chris; Craig, Adrian (1999-01-18). Starlings and Mynas. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. pp. 249–250. ISBN 978-0691004969.
  7. Bannerman, David A (1948). The Birds of Tropical West Africa. Edinburg and London: Oliver and Boyd.
  8. Louette, Michel (1981). The Birds of Cameroon: An Annotated Checklist. Verhandelingen van de Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van Belgie, Klasse der Wetenschappen. 43. ISBN 9789065696564.
  9. Dowsett-Lemaire, F (1996). "Avian frugivore assemblages at three small-fruited tree species in the forests of northern Congo". Ostrich. 67 (2): 88–89. doi:10.1080/00306525.1996.9633788.
  10. Germain, Max; Dragesco, J.; Roux, F; Garcin, H. (1973). "Contribution à l'ornithologie du Sud-Cameroun : 2. Passeriformes" [Contribution to the Ornithology of South Cameroon: 2. Passeriformes]. L'Oiseau et la Revue Française d'Ornithologie (in French). 43 (3): 212–259. Retrieved 2013-10-25.
  11. Serle, William (1965). "A Third Contribution to the Ornithology of the British Cameroons". Ibis. 107 (2): 230–246. doi:10.1111/j.1474-919X.1965.tb07298.x.
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