The Rose-coloured Starling or Rosy Starling is a bird that breeds in Asia, apparently in vast numbers. From time to time, instead of migrating south too the Indian sub-continent to spend the winter, the odd one migrates in the wrong direction and finishes up, totally lost in Europe and even the UK. One such lonely bird has been here near to my home in Devon, UK since December. In the time spent here it has started to moult through from a juvenile in to a sub-adult. Not exactly rosy as yet but in a true parody of the Ugly Duckling nursery tale, it is quite a pretty bird. While not being particularly familiar with the species I have discovered that under normal conditions they have a preference for grasshoppers and locusts but the bird here has been feeding with Common Starlings, from a garden bird table on the usual fare of fat balls and other scraps. I decided to obtain some locusts from my local pet shop and see if it would enjoy them. The answer, as you can see from the photograph is, yes very much.
Charles Fleming
Charles Fleming is a wildlife photographer and nature blogger based in South West England. His blog "Wildlife in a Suburban Garden" has more than 1400 entries and a link to his galleries where you can view more than 4000 images from home and abroad, including a gallery of birds of the world featuring photographs of more than 500 species. "My aim is to try and put my readers and viewers intimately close to the subject and to share the thrill of watching and photographing birds and wildlife at close quarters".
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