Shortly before our 2025 trip to India I was looking at some publication with photos of birds of India or Asia and saw a photo of a brahminy starling. It had crazy unruly feathers, like a mop-headed rockstar, and I thought it would be fun to see one. I was truly excited in Keoladeo NP when our guide, Ashok, pointed into a tree and said it was a brahminy starling. I took lots of photos.
As an American I tend to look down upon starlings as we have the European starling which is an over-abundant pest. But I get overseas and many of the most fun and beautiful birds are starlings, including the myna (they used to sell the common myna as a pet at Western Gardens in Salt Lake City when I was growing up and I always think of it as the talking bird). The brahminy starling is also known as the brahminy myna. It has a long wispy black crest of crown feathers, a black forehead and primaries; cinnamon nape, chin, throat and underparts; gray mantle, back, rump, tail and wings; pale green iris; a bare patch of whitish skin behind the eye; bluish base of bill and distally (further out) yellow. The female is like the male, but has a shorter crest and a darker mantle.
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| More, but less unruly, photos. |
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| Illustration from Birds of the World. |
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| Range from Birds of the World. |
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