There is a text on "Liáng Bird" in the second book of the Sujiao edition of the fifth grade Chinese language, which describes the gray starlings in this way: at first, small groups flew over, circled, and successively plunged into the acacia forest. Within a few minutes, the "big troops" were empty, and their cries could be heard from afar. Most of them fly in groups. Some were lined up in hundreds of meters long, and some were surrounded by a huge oval, and one by one, they flew over our heads in a mighty way. The birds that returned first kept chirping in the forest, as if they were pouring out to each other about what they had seen and learned of the day, and as if they were calling out to their companions and children who had not returned. The birds that arrived later and the birds in the forest responded to each other, singing as they flew, and soon found their own place to live, and joined their familiar partners.
Maybe you've also seen starlings in the city and don't recognize them? The grey starling is a species of the finch starling family , slightly larger than the northern starling , with a black crown to the back of the neck , white on the forehead and top of the head , and black longitudinal stripes on the cheeks and ear cover feathers. The upperparts are greyish brown, the tail coverts are white, the mouth is orange-red, the tips are black, and the feet are orange-yellow.
It inhabits the savanna areas of plains or mountains, is active in pairs during the breeding period, often group activities during the non-breeding period, mainly eats insects, distributed in Eurasia and northern Africa, And China is a summer migratory bird south of Heilongjiang to Liaoning, Hebei, Inner Mongolia and the Yellow River Basin, and is commonly seen in the east to south China during migration and wintering.
The grey starling male is slightly shiny black from the forehead, crown head, side of the head, hind neck and neck, white on the forehead and the front of the head, black in the first and around the eyes, and black in the cheeks and ear feathers. The dorsal, shoulder, waist and winged coverts are greyish brown, the winglet and large coverts are dark brown, the flight feathers are black brown, the primary flight feathers have narrow gray-white margins, and the secondary and tertiary flight feathers have a narrower white margin.
The upper tail feathers are white, the central tail feathers are grayish brown, the outer tail feathers are black brown, and the inner apex is white. The chin is white , and the throat , fore neck , and upper thorax are grey-black with inconspicuous gray-white spear-like stripes. The lower thorax , flanks , and ventral pale greyish brown , with white mid-ventral and subtail coverts. The underwing coverts are white, and the axillary feathers are gray-black with white tips.
Females and males are roughly similar. However, only the forehead is mixed with white, and the top of the head to the back of the neck is black and brown. The chin and throat are pale brownish grey , and the upper thorax is dark brown with tan feathers. The iris is brown, the mouth is orange-red, the tip is black, and the tarsal and toes are orange-yellow.
It inhabits sparsely forested meadows and valley broad-leaved forests in low hills and open plains, margin shrublands and secondary broad-leaved forests with old forest trees, and also inhabits small jungles near farmland, roadsides and settlements.
Sex prefers to be in groups, except for paired activities during the breeding period, and other times more group activities. It often forages on wet land such as meadows, river valleys, and farmland, and often perches on power lines, electric poles, and dead branches of trees when resting.
Plains are often active in groups, and in mountainous areas, they are mostly active in open areas, close to the forest edges of farmland and paddy fields. Fly fast, fly in groups. The chirp is low and monotonous. When one frightened takeoff, the others responded and the whole group rose.
(Wang Meng/Photo)