Neumann's Starling, or Neumann's Red-winged Starling Onychognathus neumanni, is a bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

 native to Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. This starling

Starling

Starlings are small to medium-sized passerine birds in the family Sturnidae. The name "Sturnidae" comes from the Latin word for starling, sturnus. Many Asian species, particularly the larger ones, are called mynas, and many African species are known as glossy starlings because of their iridescent...

 breeds on rocky cliffs, outcrops and gorges mainly in the Sahel

Sahel

The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....

 from Mauretania

Mauretania

Mauretania is a part of the historical Ancient Libyan land in North Africa. It corresponds to present day Morocco and a part of western Algeria...

 and Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea

Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...

 to western Sudan

Sudan

Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...

. Its English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 and binomial names commemorate German

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

 ornithologist

Ornithology

Ornithology is a branch of zoology that concerns the study of birds. Several aspects of ornithology differ from related disciplines, due partly to the high visibility and the aesthetic appeal of birds...

 Oscar Rudolph Neumann

Oscar Rudolph Neumann

Oscar Rudolph Neumann was a German ornithologist.Neumann travelled to Africa on several occasions, in particular between 1892 and 1894, and described many new African species...

.

Description

This 25 cm long species is similar to other Onychognathus

Onychognathus

Onychognathus, is a genus of African starlings.All the species are quite similar, and characterised by rufous primary wing feathers, very obvious in flight...

starlings, showing the characteristic rufous primary wing feathers, very obvious in flight. The iris is dark red, and the bill and legs are black. The male plumage is otherwise mainly glossy black, and the female is ash grey with darker streaking. The juvenile resembles the male, but is less glossy than the adult, and has brown rather than dark red eyes.

The song is a too-whee-oo, and the alarm call is a harsh air, air.

Western populations from western Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

 and the Ivory Coast

Côte d'Ivoire

The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...

 are smaller and shorter-tailed than the nominate form, O. n. neumanni, and are assigned to the subspecies O. n. modicus.

Behaviour

The Red-winged Starling builds a nest of grass on a ledge in a sheltered site such as a cave. It is also associated with human settlement, and some related red-winged starling

Onychognathus

Onychognathus, is a genus of African starlings.All the species are quite similar, and characterised by rufous primary wing feathers, very obvious in flight...

 species are known to use man-made structures as nest sites.

This species is territorial, aggressive and intolerant when nesting, and will attack other species, including birds of prey

Bird of prey

Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....

.

Like other starlings, the Neumann's Red-winged Starling is an omnivore

Omnivore

Omnivores are species that eat both plants and animals as their primary food source...

, taking a wide range of fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

, including fig

Ficus

Ficus is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes, and hemiepiphyte in the family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few species extending into the semi-warm temperate zone. The Common Fig Ficus is a genus of...

s, and some invertebrate

Invertebrate

An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group...

s. It is highly gregarious, and will form large flocks when not breeding.