Book description
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.
