violet-backed starling

plural violet-backed starlings

1. Cinnyricinclus leucogaster, a relatively small species (17 cm) of starling, the male of which has an iridescent violet head and back and pure white underparts, and the female a thrush-like appearance with brown, boldly-streaked upper parts and white, heavily-streaked underparts.

   Pearl-breasted swallows swooped low over the grass beside the runway, and as they made their way across the tarmac towards the airport building they almost tripped over a small flock of violet-backed starlings.

   2008, Nicholas Drayson, chapter 22, in A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 106

   2 more examples

   Two-dimensional arrays are formed by a tight and orderly packing of melanin rods. Figure 4.24C shows the hexagonal packing structure of hollow rods responsible for the iridescent violet feathers of the striking violet-backed starling.

   2011, Jack W. Bradbury, Sandra L[ee] Vehrencamp, “Structural colors”, in Principles of Animal Communication, 2nd edition, Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, Inc., →ISBN, chapter 4 (Light and Visual Signal Production), “Light-Signal Generation” section, page 137

   Among the highlights were violet-backed starlings, amethyst gems that glittered and flared under the unceasing Natal sun, and whose wheezing, buzzing, busy songs gave away their relationship to our own sole representative of this large Old World family (although the common starling has been introduced elsewhere, notably the United States, where it is considered a pest).

   2016, Matt Merritt, “Of a Single Mind”, in A Sky Full of Birds: In Search of Murders, Murmurations and Britain’s Great Bird Gatherings, London: Rider, →ISBN, page 153

   Synonyms: amethyst starling, plum-coloured starling