Red-winged Starling

The red-winged starling (Onychognathus morio) is a large, strongly built starling of eastern and southern Africa. Adults measure about 27–30 cm and typically weigh around 115–155 g. Both sexes are dark with conspicuous chestnut-red flight feathers that form bright wing panels in flight. Adult males are glossy black over the head and body, whereas females have a contrasting ash-grey head and neck.

In parts of southern Africa it overlaps with the pale-winged starling (Onychognathus nabouroup). Pale-winged starlings have creamy-white rather than chestnut-red primary patches, bright orange eyes and a shorter tail; the sexes also look alike, unlike the strongly grey-headed female red-winged starling.

Red-winged starlings are naturally associated with cliffs, rocky gorges, escarpments and mountainous country, where rock faces provide secure nesting and roosting sites. They also forage across surrounding savanna, woodland, farmland and other open landscapes.

The species has adapted exceptionally well to towns and cities because tall buildings, bridges and other structures provide artificial substitutes for cliffs. Mature trees, gardens and other green spaces add natural foods, while nearby lawns, campuses and streets provide additional places to forage.

The diet is highly varied and includes fruit, berries, nectar, seeds, insects and other arthropods, together with occasional small vertebrates. In urban areas these natural foods are supplemented, and sometimes heavily replaced, by discarded human food.

Red-winged starlings forage both in vegetation and on the ground and can shift quickly between seasonal food sources. Fruiting trees and flowering plants may attract several birds at once, while open ground provides insects, seeds and other foods. Insects become especially important while chicks are growing, and adults adjust where and how they forage as local resources change.

Social organisation changes strongly with age and breeding status. Established adults form long-term monogamous pairs that can remain together across several breeding seasons and defend nesting and roosting sites, while many juveniles and unpaired birds move in mobile flocks that track changing food supplies. Outside the breeding season such flocks can contain up to around 500 birds.

Both sexes are vocal, using whistles, varied song phrases and other calls in social communication. Many whistles are shared among individuals rather than acting as unique vocal signatures. Around active nests pairs can be conspicuously bold and aggressively drive away other birds, mammals and people that approach too closely.

Breeding timing varies across the range. In the Cape region egg laying extends roughly from September to March. Some pairs can attempt two broods in the same season, often beginning clutches around October and again around December. Natural nests are placed on protected cliff ledges and in crevices, while buildings, bridges and other structures are now also widely used. Both sexes build a large, flat nest of sticks, stems and rootlets held together with mud and lined with finer material such as soft grass or hair.

A clutch usually contains three eggs, although two and four also occur. The female incubates alone, and in the Cape region incubation has averaged about 16 days. Young remain in the nest for roughly 22–28 days, averaging around 26 days. Both parents feed and defend the young after hatching, and fledglings remain associated with the adults while becoming independent.

Red-winged starlings are among the African birds that have made extensive use of urban environments. Buildings reproduce important features of their natural cliff habitat, while litter, outdoor eating areas and other human-provided food sources offer concentrated and predictable food. Their willingness to exploit these resources has allowed them to become familiar birds in many towns.

A study published in 2021 at the University of Cape Town in South Africa found both benefits and costs from this urban food supply. Breeding adults consumed more human-derived food and gained more body mass on days with high human presence. Nestlings were also fed more of this food on such days, but chicks exposed to more high-human-presence days were smaller at about 16–18 days old. Easily available, energy-rich human food can therefore benefit adults while providing a poorer nutritional balance for rapidly growing young.

The red-winged starling is classified as least concern on the IUCN Red List. It has a very large distribution in eastern and southern Africa and remains common across a wide range of rocky, rural and urban habitats.

Its ability to use buildings for nesting and to switch flexibly among natural and human-provided foods has helped it persist and in some places thrive in heavily modified landscapes. No major threat is known to place the global population at risk.