Endangered
Black-winged Starling
Acridotheres melanopterus
Black-winged Starling is a perching bird in the family Sturnidae (order Passeriformes) — Acridotheres melanopterus, recorded as Endangered and tied to Indonesia.
Appearance
The plumage of this species is striking, with the head, breast, back and rump being white, and the tail and parts of the wings glossy black. The tip of the tail and parts of the wings are also white. The skin around the eye is unfeathered and yellow.
The black-winged myna is a small myna, 23 centimetres (9.1 in) in length.
Range and habitat
Its natural habitats are tropical dry forests, tropical dry shrubland, tropical moist shrubland, and pastureland, from sea-level up to 2400 meters. Until recently it had adjusted to human-modified habitats well, moving into orchards, lawns, suburban areas and other cultivated land. There are three recognised subspecies: the nominate race, that occurs across much of the island of Java. Tricolor, that is restricted to south east Java, and tertius, that is found on Bali and possibly Lombok.
Several reintroductions were planned, one at Antam Pongkor Gold Mine in Gunung Halimun Salak National Park and another Rawadanau Nature Reserve in Banten Province, though the former was setback after the property was transferred to national park authorities, who immediately relaxed trapping prevention, resulting in the decline from forty individuals to eight.
Habitat labels include shrubland, savanna, and forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
It is a seasonal breeder, although the exact timing of the breeding season varies by location. Birds in west Java breed from March to May, but in east Bali the season is around June.
In crisis
The black-winged myna was once an abundant bird, so much so that it was considered a potential rival and threat to the threatened Bali myna. The species has declined, even so, for much the same reasons as the Bali myna, principally collection for the caged-bird trade. The black-winged myna is one of the most popular species among collectors. In recent years the number of birds entering the trade has declined as they have become increasingly rare in the wild.
It is believed that the population has declined by at least 80% over the last 10 years. The species is also potentially threatened by changes in agricultural processes, and scientists are also concerned about genetic variation being lost as escapees mix the three subspecies.
Black-winged Starling is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Black-winged Starling, Wikidata item Q1881975. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
