plum-colored starling

plural plum-colored starlings

1. American standard spelling of plum-coloured starling.

   Some starlings are drab, but the incandescent glossy and plum-colored starlings (43) with their petroleum sheen more than make up for it.

   2000, Melissa Shales, Fodor’s Exploring South Africa, 3rd edition, New York, N.Y.: Fodor’s Travel Publications, →ISBN, page 273

   2 more examples

   A plum-colored starling whistled from the branches of a flowering baobab, and masked weavers wove nests among the fluffy lavender and yellow lantern flowers in the sicklebush.

   2001, Catherine Stock, Gugu’s House, New York, N.Y.: Clarion Books, →ISBN, page 29

   Our outpost was in a trench under a huge, shady fig tree. The fruit was ripe on this huge old tree, and all day it was alive with parrots, green pigeons, plum-colored starlings, and an assortment of vividly decorated birds.

   2010, Ron Morkel, “Territorial Soldier”, in Rhodesia: Beginning to End, →ISBN, part 4 (Ronald Norman Morkel (1946- )), page 262