Sharpe's Starling - BirdForum Opus

Photo by JWN Andrewes
Aberdares Country Club, Kenya, June 2006

Identification

18cm. A rather small, distinctive starling:

Sexes similar. Juveniles have grey upperparts, are cream-coloured below and have a dark brown eye.

Patchily distributed in Ethiopia, southeastern South Sudan, eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania
One single record from extreme northeast Zambia.
Locally common to uncommon.

This is a monotypic species^[1] which in the past was placed in genus Cinnyricinclus and which is also placed in Poeoptera.

Montane forests in high-rain fall areas. Also in clearings, forest edges and isolated copses of trees. Occurs mostly at 1800 - 2500m.

Feeds mainly on fruits, takes also some insects.
Forages mainly in the canopy, often in flocks of up to 25 birds and in association with Abbott's Starling, Stuhlmann's Starling, Waller's Starling, Slender-billed Starling and Bulbuls.

Breeding season differs through range. The nest is placed in a tree hole up to 15m above the ground. One nest contained 3 eggs.

Clements, J. F., T. S. Schulenberg, M. J. Iliff, D. Roberson, T. A. Fredericks, B. L. Sullivan, and C. L. Wood. 2017. The eBird/Clements checklist of birds of the world: v2017, with updates to August 2017. Downloaded from http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist/download/
Gill, F and D Donsker (Eds). 2011. IOC World Bird Names (version 2.10). Available at http://www.worldbirdnames.org/.
Del Hoyo, J, A Elliott, and D Christie, eds. 2009. Handbook of the Birds of the World. Volume 14: Bush-shrikes to Old World Sparrows. Barcelona: Lynx Edicions. ISBN 978-8496553507
BF Member observations

BirdForum Opus contributors. (2025) Sharpe's Starling. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 9 May 2025 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Sharpe%27s_Starling

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