For My New Photo Gallery Click Here
More Photos In This Series

Wednesday 19 October 2011

A Chinese Special----Red-billed (Silky) Starling


The Red-billed Starling (or Silky Starling) is a medium sized starling and a resident of Southeast China, although rare sightings have been recorded in South Korea, Taiwan and Japan.

As its name indicates, the Red-billed Starling has a red bill with dark tip, and a grey coloured body.


While the male bird has a distinctive whitish head, 



the head of the female is mainly brownish. 


But both sexes have orange coloured legs.  



Each year, the Red-billed Starlings travel from Southeast China to Hong Kong to spend the winter here.  A couple of days ago, I saw several birds feeding in mutflats during a very low tide. Unlike most of the shorebirds, the Red-billed Starlings search for food through cracks in the dry mud. 



Sometimes,  they even put the entire head down to look for insects trapped in the shallow water.





6 comments:

John @ Beans and I on the Loose said...

Those pictures sticking his head into the cracks are something. Thanks for showing this.

Karen @ Pieces of Contentment said...

They look quite odd with their head so far down in the mud cracks out of sight. It must have been a treat to stay and watch them.

Giga said...

Zdjęcia pokazują wygląd ptaków ( pani i pana) i ich zwyczaje przy poszukiwaniu jedzenia. Bardzo mi się to podoba. Pozdrawiam

Claudia said...

Excellent images with stunning detail. Congratulations.

Have a lovely day.

NatureFootstep said...

such a nice starling. :) Love your presentaion of´it. It seems to like the caved in spots, probably lots of food in there. :)

Thanks for visiting my birdblog. :)

Cristina Ferreira said...

Olá! que belas fotos , um abraço.