Starlings and Mynas

The starling family contains some of the most common and some of the rarest birds in the world--ranging from the ubiquitous Common Starling to species restricted to single islands in the South Pacific. Starlings and Mynas is the first comprehensive, one-volume guide to all 114 members of the family.

The main text of the book presents descriptions and illustrations of every species and many distinctive subspecies. It offers extensive information about identification, ecology, and behavior, complemented by thirty-two color plates and distribution maps. The authors also reexamine the classification of starlings in the light of up-to-date knowledge of the birds' ecology and behavior. In the introduction, the authors outline their general approach to the family and provide an overview of the birds' distribution, breeding, behavior, ecology, habitat, and moult. They also review the birds' fascinating interactions with humans, explaining how starlings and mynas have been scorned as pests, used for food, valued as pets and as mimics, and even had religious significance in different parts of the world. With its combination of precise, scientific observations and colorful contextual information, this book will become the definitive guide to this diverse family of birds.