Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Family: Sturnidae

One of these days, hopefully I will see and photograph a close Starling! They are beautiful birds, even if not at all popular. "First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent’s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with short tails, triangular wings, and long, pointed bills. Though they’re sometimes resented for their abundance and aggressiveness, they’re still dazzling birds when you get a good look. Covered in white spots during winter, they turn dark and glossy in summer. For much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy flocks." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/id This one was seen on 3 November 2016, when I was on a birding walk at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park, all morning with friends, mainly seeing various birds that were just distant silhouettes and much too far away for photos. I will add the list of the 32 bird species seen at Burnsmead, complied by our leaders, in a comment box below. By the way, a note to any local birders - the road down to Bankside has been closed for the winter. I don't remember this happening other years. Now you have to park in the Burnsmead parking lot and walk the rest of the way if you want to go to Bankside. After the walk, I decided that I needed to see something close enough to photograph, so I drove south a little way to look for a Long-tailed Weasel that people had been seeing all last week - but, as usual, not on the day that I went, lol! After 45 minutes of waiting, there was still no sign of the little Weasel. So, my usual plan of desperation took me to a wetland in the SW of the city, where I can usually see Mallards. Sure enough, there were two pairs hanging out together, and I really appreciated their giving me the chance to take a few photos. They were swimming in and out of sunlight and shadow, giving totally different photos.

This photo was taken at the Calgary Zoo on 6 October 2015, the last time I visited. SInce then, my usual parking lot has been closed (for the winter} and now for construction in the area while the old bridge I always use is replaced and won't be ready till 2017. I would have to use the north parking lot, which is totally out of my driving comfort zone. I have posted three previous photos of this beautiful tropical bird, but this is the first image that shows the whole bird and its very long, narrow tail. The first time I ever saw this beautifu bird, it took my breath away. Have added a previously posted, closer view in a comment box below. "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." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-breasted_starling Later, I just 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 at the Zoo a few days ago) that had escaped from the Zoo. Actually, this story reminded me that when I was in a small store a couple of days ago, buying a new pedometer, a Magpie flew in through the open door and perched on the counter by the till : ) The sales woman was surprised when I told her about her unexpected visitor! www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/23/inglewood-family-helps-calg...

"First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, European Starlings are now among the continent’s most numerous songbirds. They are stocky black birds with short tails, triangular wings, and long, pointed bills. Though they’re sometimes resented for their abundance and aggressiveness, they’re still dazzling birds when you get a good look. Covered in white spots during winter, they turn dark and glossy in summer. For much of the year, they wheel through the sky and mob lawns in big, noisy flocks." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/European_Starling/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_starling This photo was taken on 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. As you can see in this image, it was a beautiful fall day with a lovely blue sky. Also, enough trees were still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections in parts f the canal. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover juvenile. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I did post it on Flickr. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost impossible to see. Great camouflage. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it. The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David: 1. Canada Goose - 60+ 2. Mallard - 150+ 3. Northern Shoveler - 1 4. Green-winged Teal - 2 5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males 6. Common Merganser - 20+ 7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature 9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies) 10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase) 11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 12. Killdeer - 1 13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+ 14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11 15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+ 16. Herring Gull - 2 17. Rock Pigeon - 32+ 18. Downy Woodpecker - 1 19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2 20. Northern Flicker - 2 21. Merlin - 2 22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+ 23. American Crow - 6 24. Common Raven - 2 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 27. American Robin - 8 28. European Starling - 18+ 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 30. American Tree Sparrow - 1 31. House Finch - 1

Thanks to Jack Hayden who identified this as a juvenile European Starling. I don't think I've ever seen a juvenile before, lol! Couldn't resist the Canola field bokeh : ) On 12 July 2014, my first stop was at Frank Lake, where I saw a few more Eared Grebes with their quite large "babies". The light was really bad, so it was impossible to get photos that showed colour and details properly. Saw Soras again - love these little guys, they are so cute. A few very distant White-faced Ibis, but I lucked out later, finding a lone Ibis at a slough somewhere around the lake. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/european_starling/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_starling

This (blurry!) bird was seen on 12 July 2014, when I spent a few hours driving the backroads SE of Calgary, in the Frank Lake area. It's so unusual for me to see and photograph a bird that I don't recognize, meaning that I don't see a lot of less usual birds, but I saw two that day (the other turned out to be a Vesper Sparrow). If anyone can tell me the ID of the bird in my photo, that would be greatly appreciated! The background was a colourful field of Canola : ) Thanks to Jack Hayden who identified this as a juvenile European Starling. I don't think I've ever seen a juvenile before, lol! My first stop was at Frank Lake, where I saw a few more Eared Grebes with their quite large "babies". The light was really bad, so it was impossible to get photos that showed colour and details. Saw Soras again - love these little guys, they are so cute. A few very distant White-faced Ibis, but I lucked out later, finding a lone Ibis at a slough somewhere around the lake. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/european_starling/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_starling