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Records of Superb Starling (<I>Lamprotornis Superbus</I>) in Florida

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Records of Superb Starling (<I>Lamprotornis Superbus</I>) in Florida sos i rn oto i su us)in o ida BILLPRANTY. 8515 VILLAGE MILL ROW. BAYONET POINT, FLORIDA 34667 ß (EMAIL: [email protected]) Figures1,2. Two views of a SuperbStarling atPompano Beach, Browasd County, Florida on 21 July 2007. This bird, perhaps one of a pair,often sang and built a nestin a nativepalm m a shoppingcenter parkinglot. It shared this habitat with, among others, afamily of Gray Kingbirds (Tyrannus dominicensis), anesting pair of Common Mynas (Acridotheres tristis], and a female-plumaged bishop(Euplectes spp.]--afairly typical scene in southeastern FloridaS urban jungle. Photographs byBillœranly. Abstract 100. One of the most recent exotics to be doc- familygroups of 20 or morebirds may be This paper digestsall known reportsand umentedin Floridais SuperbStarling (Lam- found year-round(Feare and Craig 1998). recordsof SuperbStarling (Lamprotornis su- protornissuperbus, sometimes placed in the The adult is distinctive with its black head, perbus)in Florida,including a documented genusSpreo), the subject of thisnote (Figures glossybluish nape and upperparts,glossy nestingin BrowardCounty. 1, 2). bluish-greenwings, tail with boldly black- SuperbStarling, one of 21 "glossystar- tippeduppertail coverts, and white undertail 0ventiew lings," is a monotypicspecies common in coverts;a starkwhite breastband separates Florida•s the exouc avifauna capital of North partsof Ethiopia,Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, the glossybluish-black breast from the rusty America,with more than 200 speciesreport- Tanzania,and Uganda (Feare and Craig 1998, belly.The bill, legs,and feet are blackish gray, ed outsideof captivity,and with nearlyfour Clements2000). It is generallyfound in arid and the iridesare whitishand conspicuous "new" speciesreported annually (Pranty countrysuch as thorn scrub,but it ventures againstthe blackface. The sexesare similar, 2004). Through2003, 97 speciesof exotic to the Kenyacoast and •s alsofound •n gar- but the male's breast band is said to be wider birdshad beendocumented in the stateby dens and other cultivatedhabitats (Feare and than the female's.Juveniles have non-glossy archivedspecimen or photographicevidence Craig1998). Superb Starlings are cooperative plumage,dark irides,a pale yellowbill. and (Pranty2004), andthis number now exceeds breeders(Rubenstein and kovette 2007), and lackthe breast band (Feare and Craig1998). 656 NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS RECORDS-OFSUPERBSTARLING INFLORIDA 1 Table1. Recent reports ofSuperb Starlings inBroward County, Florida. The three birds photographed dunng2007 may represent thefirst documented recordsof Superb Starling out- sidethe species' native range ineast-central Africa. Date(s) City Comments Observer{s) 21Jul 2003 Hollywood Oneat North Beach Park B.Roberts ca.Jun 2004 Hollywood Onenear the greyhound racetrack D.Bogos 13Jul 2004 Hollywood Onealong Hallandale Beach Boulevard westof the Intracoastal Waterway D. Bogos ca.1 Dec 2004 Hollywood Onenear US-1 and Washington Street C.Chinelly Two(one banded, theother unbanded) thought tobe nesting along ca.2005-8 Sep 2007 Hollywood HallandaleBeach Boulevard eastof the Intracoastal Waterway; birds L Manfredi,RCunningham, J.Steel et al.; photographs ofboth birds hadbeen present "2-3 years" 7Jul-lSep 2007 PompanoBeach AtlanticOne (unbanded),Boulevard possiblyeastofUS-1two, building anest inacabbage palmalong D.Howard, B.Roberts, E. J.Reed, B. Pranty, photographs ofone bird SuperbStarlings in underparts,and white breastband. Prior to LongmanHouse, Essex. captivityano in Florida 2007,all of the sightingsof SuperbStarlings Long,J. L. 1981.Introduced Birds of theWorld. Owing to their stunningplumage, Superb wereof singlebirds seen once each at various ReedProprietary Limited, Sydney, Starlingsare widely found in animalexhibits sitesin Hollywood.During 2007, evidence of Pranty,B. 2004. Florida'sexotic avifauna:a and aviculture.In mid-2007, more than 120 breeding(or at leastnest-building) was ob- preliminarychecklist. Birding 36: 362-372. SuperbStarlings were held in 36 registered servedat Hollywoodand PompanoBeach. Rubenstein,D. R., and 1. J. Lovette. 2007. exhibitsin the United Statesand Canada,in- The Hollywoodlocation contained two terri- Temporalenvironmental variability drives cludingtwo exhibits in Florida:one female at torialbirds suspected of nestingin a Coconut the evolutionof cooperativebreeding in Disney'sAnimal Kingdom and four starlings Palm (Cocosnucifera), while at Pompano birds.Current Biology 17: 1414-1419. (oneadult of unknownsex and one pair with Beach,one or two starlingswere observed SFS [Softbills For Sale]. 2007. Advertise- their juvenile) at Miami MetroZoo(1SIS singingand buildinga nest.The nest,ob- ments. <www. softbillsforsale.com>. Ac- 2007).Additionally, one website (SFS 2007) servedsolely from the ground,was 4-4.5 m cessed26 July 2007. containedrecent advertisements byavicultur- up in the upperfronds of a CabbagePalm ists in Alabama, Connecticut,Florida, New (Sabalpalmetto) and appearedto be com- York,Pennsylvania, and Washington who of- posedmostly of driedgrass. The six sightings feredto buyor sellSuperb Starlings (at up to of SuperbStarlings scattered geographically $200each). Because neither Long (1981) nor and temporally within urban regions of Lever(1987) listsany exoticpopulations of BrowardCounty suggestthe presenceof a SuperbStarlings in the world,and because1 smallto perhapsmoderate-sized population. wasunable to locateany reports by searching Habitataround each of the sitesoccupied in the Internet,the Floridaobservations may the pastfive years is similarto surrounding representthe first SuperbStarlings reported areas and amounts to thousands of hectares outsidetheir native range. of apparentlysuitable habitat. Surveys of the Exceptfor two previouslyunpublished re- regionare neededto determinethe true sta- ports from the Kendall area, Miam•-Dade tus of the Florida's most recent exotic County,during the 1980sthat mayrepresent colonist. the sameindividual (B. Kelley,in litt., July 2004; M. Wheeler,pers. comm., September Acknowledgments 2007), SuperbStarlings were first notedin 1 thankDiane Bogos, Cindy Chinelly, Paddy Floridain 2003and apparently have been ob- Cunningham,Derek Howard, Janice Steel, E. servedannually since then (Table 1). All re- J. Reed,Victoria Rothman, Mickey Wheeler, cent observations have been within 3 km of thelate Bob Kelley, and especially Larry Man- the AtlanticOcean in BrowardCounty, along frediand BryantRoberts for providingtheir Florida'sheavily urbanized southeastern observations,and Greg Schrottand James Searchour coast. Five of the six recent locations have Tuckerfor accompanyingme to southeastern beenfrom Hollywood, with thesixth location Florida. onlinedatabase (representingseveral sightings of the same two birds)from PompanoBeach, 25-30 km Literature cited www.americanbirding.org/ farthernorth. A minimumconvex polygon Feare,C., and A. Craig.1998. Starlings and drawn around the Hollywoodobservations Mynas.Christopher Helm, London. programs/consfest.htm suggestsan occupiedrange of about730 ha. 1SIS[International Species Information Sys- Twoof thereports are documented by photo- tem]. 2007. Speciesholdings <www. app. graphs,and the remaining reports clearly de- isis.org/abstracts/Abs66714.asp>.Accessed scribethe species:no other glossystarling 28 August2007. hasthe combinationof whitishirides, rusty Lever,C. 1987.Naturalized Birds of theWorld. American Birding VOLUME 61 (2007) ß NUMBER 4 657 .
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