Golden-breasted Starling

I took this photo at the Calgary Zoo on 29 September 2015. That day, my alarm clock was set for 6:30 am so that I could go on a birding walk with friends. Unfortunately, I didn't read the e-mail carefully enough, so hadn't seen that the meeting place was not where I thought. Of course, no one else showed up where I was, so I took myself off to the Calgary Zoo instead. I had planned on going there after the walk, anyway.

This beautiful tropical bird, a Golden-breasted Starling, took my breath away! It has such vibrant colours and sheen, and an extremely long, narrow tail (which obviously isn't seen in this close shot). Unfortunately, the light is terrible in this hot, humid building, so I find it's difficult to get a sharp photo of anything.

"The golden-breasted starling (Lamprotornis regius), also known as royal starling, is a medium-sized, up to 35 cm long, passerine in the starling family. It is distributed in the grassland, savannah and shrubland of East Africa, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania.

The adult has a metallic green head and upper back, bright golden yellow breast and belly, dark bill and legs, white iris and metallic violet blue on wings, back, neck and its long tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The young are duller than the adult.

The golden-breasted starling is a social animal, living in groups of three to twelve individuals." From Wikipedia.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-breasted_starling

Later: I discovered a Calgary Sun newspaper article from 23 June 2015, about a family that discovered this bird (or a different individual - I seem to remember seeing two of these birds when I was there) that had escaped from the Zoo.

www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/23/inglewood-family-helps-calg...