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Rose coloured starling spotted in north of Scotland

12/09/2008 09:43:53

birds/birds_september_2008/rose_starling_john_muir

Rose-coloured starling in Scotland. Copyright John Muir Trust.

Sandwood Estate

The John Muir Trust's Sandwood estate is 12 miles south of Cape Wrath. It's noted for the sand and dunes of Sandwood Bay, its miles of rugged cliffs and extensive machair and peatlands and its atmosphere of remoteness and peace. The estate is entirely crofted and is home to about 100 people.

September 2008. A Rose Coloured Starling has been photographed by a John Muir Trust member in her garden in the Sandwood Bay Estate in Sutherland, north Scotland. This unusual highland visitor is from Easternmost Europe and Southern Asia and is presumed to have been blown off course on route to India and Sri Lanka where it over-winters. The adult of this species is easy to identify with its orange beak and legs, pink body and black head, wings and tail.

The Rose Coloured Starling stayed in a garden in Droman for several days before disappearing. There are several sightings of Rose Coloured Starlings in the UK every year but it is rare for them to turn up this far north.

Rose coloured starlings
Rose Coloured Starlings are nomadic, travelling in huge flocks to winter in tropical Asia, mainly feeding on grasshoppers and locusts. The stray ones that are blown as far north as the Scottish Highlands have to settle for midges.

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