Plumcoloured starling

The plumcoloured starling or violet-backed starling, in Afrikaans witborsspreeu (whitebreasted starling) and scientifically Cinnyricinclus leucogaster, visits the northern and eastern parts of South Africa during the warmer season as a breeding migrant. It never stays so far south for winter and never leaves Sub-Saharan Africa. The genus is monotypic, there being no other species in the Cinnyricinclus genus.

Only the male of these dimorphic starlings has the spectacular iridescent purple upper parts, while both sexes are white below. The female is streaked dark in the white section. Her back is pale brown, streaked darker. The immature bird is feathered like the female, its eye brown, while mother is yellow-eyed.

Two to three pale greenish blue eggs are laid in a natural hole in a tree trunk or big branch, these days conveniently also in an available pipe. It will even go down inside one that is erect as a fence-post, as seen annually for several years using a particular post of a Magaliesberg fence.

The nest is padded with grass and leaves by the female, while both parents will keep adding leaves during the incubation that lasts for 12 days. The female does all the hatching duties but both parents bring food (Maclean,1993; Wikipedia).