Colours of Wildlife: Meves's Starling

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Meves's Starling

Willem is a wildlife artist based in South Africa. He says "My aim is simply to express the beauty and wonder that is in Nature, and to heighten people's appreciation of plants, animals and the wilderness. Not everything I paint is African! Though I've never been there, I'm also fascinated by Asia and I've done paintings of Asian rhinos and birds as well. I may in future do some of European, Australian and American species too. I'm fascinated by wild things from all over the world! I mainly paint in watercolours. . . but actually many media including 'digital' paintings with the computer!"

Meves Starling by Willem


Here you see one of my favourite bird species, Meves's Starling, Lamprotornis mevesii. The scientific name means, if I have it right, 'Meves's shiny bird'. I'm indebted to my friend Sandrie de Wet for the photo I referred to while painting this. This starling is of very restricted occurrence in South Africa, and the only place I've seen it so far, is in the Mapungubwe National Park. Mapungubwe is in the far northwest corner of South Africa, where it borders on both Zimbabwe and Botswana. From vantage points in the reserve, one can see both these countries across the Limpopo River (which often doesn't flow very strongly, making possible border crossings on foot). In South Africa, the low-lying, hot and dry Limpopo Valley is the stronghold for this species. It occurs in similar hot, dry regions in Zimbabwe and Botswana, and also in the far north of Namibia. It extends into Angola and Zambia. It is associated with dry woodland dominated by the Mopane tree, Colophospermum mopane, found in the valleys of very large rivers like the Limpopo, Zambezi, Cunene, Save and Luangwa. It also occurs widely in the riverine forests of the Okavango Delta.


Meves's starling used to be called the Longtailed Starling here in South Africa, but the name was changed recently to standardize bird names across the African continent. This has become important because of access to different African countries now becoming quite easy, and bird watchers get confused by different names for the same species, or the same name for different species, in different countries. The name long-tailed starling is now reserved for the species Lamprotornis caudatus, which occurs only north of the equator in a broad band of dry savannah. This species has a slightly longer tail. A few other starlings with long tails occur in Africa, but they have other prominent features, for which they are named.


Apart from the Mopane, the woodlands in which Meves's starling are found, also feature the amazing and imposing Baobab. Other large trees, such as Ana trees, Jackal berries, Sausage trees and Nyala trees, are found along the banks of rivers. Meves's starling nests in holes in trees such as these. It nests in late summer, a time of extreme heat in this region. How the starling (or any other living thing, frankly) survives this unrelenting heat, is something I don't know yet. It eats mainly insects, often caught on the ground, and small amounts of fruits. It is typically seen in small to large flocks, hopping or running around on its long legs, uttering its typically loud and grating calls, sometimes many birds calling in chorus. It shows little fear of people.


In South Africa, this starling is most similar to Burchell's Starling, to which it is closely related. It is slightly smaller, its tail is notably longer, and it has a darker, more purplish gloss to its feathers. It belongs to the glossy starlings of Africa, which appear all-black in poor light, but in the sun shimmer with beautiful iridescent colours. Most African glossy starlings are in the genus Lamprotornis. In Asia, a group of similar glossy starlings are found, but in a different genus, Aplonis. Amazingly, in the New World, several species of Grackles look very similar, despite not being at all closely related to them. Instead, the grackles are members of the family Icteridae, which includes bobolinks, blackbirds, cowbirds, 'orioles' (not the same as old-world or true orioles), meadow-larks, oropendolas and caciques. This family has diversified in the new world to fill the ecological niches of many kinds of old-world birds, with the result of amazing resemblances (in appearance and in habits) between them and old-world birds like starlings, weavers and long-claws. This, as you'll know if you're a regular reader of this column, is called 'convergent evolution'.


At present, Meves's starling is not endangered. The regions it inhabits have few humans living in them, as a result of the near-intolerable heat. Indeed if we suffer significant global warming, this species might well be able to extend its range, but this will not be a very good thing for most less-heat-tolerant beings!

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