In this post we share with you the arrival patterns of Rosy Starling as it moves across the country. As is evident in the illustration below, Rosy Starlings arrive early (around mid to end July) in northwestern India, but then take three to four months to trickle down to the southernmost States!
You can look at all Rosy Starling sightings in the MigrantWatch database here. Many thanks for all who contributed their observations.
Note on how this map was made: you might wonder why, given there are many hundred Rosy Starling records in the database, there are so few points shown here. In each migration season (July to June; five migration seasons in all) we took the earliest sighting for each State; and these State-wise early sightings are depicted here. So, to reiterate, the points shown on the map are the earliest sightings for each State. Multiple points within a State represent different migration seasons. The labels on the left describe the typical pattern for a given State or region, taking all migration seasons into consideration. You can download the State-wise first sightings in an Excel file here.
23 responses to “Arrival pattern for the Rosy Starling”
unlike the data mentioned above, rosy starlings are seen in delhi now, which is April. this is most likely their return from south. However in the picture above it is mentioned as July when rosy starlings are seen in north. kindly clarify on this.
@bhrigu – thanks for your comment. In this picture, we are examining only the first sightings of Rosy Starlings in each State, rather than looking at return migration (which is presumably what you are seeing now in Delhi). So, the map is restricted to sightings that took place up until December of each migration season.
For example, in the migration season 2011-2012, the first sighting of the species from Delhi proper was on 31 July 2011.
Rosy Starlings are known to aggregate in huge flocks on their return migration — and this would be an interesting thing to investigate; but the map above is only for arrivals (more strictly, first reporting sightings of a season).
Many thanks – Suhel (for MigrantWatch)
In Kancheepuram near Chennai, I couldn’t see them in our campus (Postgraduate Research Institute In Animal Sciences) till February. Right now, there is a flock sitting on tree outside my window.
Can some body tell when does rosy starling breed? and in which areas? what are breeding months? thanks
22 april rosy starlings come in balochistan in our valley people are found off to hunt them they come for 10 days
We love rosy stating
rosy starling has been noted in july at surat outskirts with younger ones.does it mean that breeding has occured here or ad rosy starling has migrated with younger ones?
R. starling was noticed in drought prone region Sangola of Solapur district Maharashtra state of India. The interesting thing is that Rosy starling in group of hundreds visited to my home for feeding grains regularly even though till today 12th January 2017. for video visit youtube @ vidhin kamble
Rosy Pastors arrive in India by July Aug. Their landings are Gujarat and Near by areas of Gujarat. On their return again they aggregate in Gujarat in millions and take off around full moon day by the end of April. They breed in Europe and Asia Minor not in India. But the first to arrive are flocks with young ones lead by few veterans obviously for route selection and direction. India is their feeding ground.
Thank you Sir, for these insights. Some very interesting patterns are emerging with the much larger set of observations now being uploaded on eBird. One can play around with the Rosy Starling range map, as well as with the seasonality charts for India.
Hi, l am Dr. Vidhin Kamble from Maharashtra state of India. Since last 4 years I am engaged in birds conservation by providing artificial nest and feeding them into domestic feeding ground. Last year I noticed Rosy starling arrived at my home on 26th October and this year on 14th October 2017 for feeding in my home premises. My home is at drought prone region Sangola of Maharashtra state of India.
Please click following link towatch videos of Rosy starling at my home
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ctMsY4QBjys
Click following link to watch Sparrow videos
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PdKvs13lqo4
Link for Rosy starling in India
https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=11s&v=6vCOuXcjTgY
I saw a flock of Rosy Pasters in Indore , India last few days 11th to 15 March 2019. They vist Indore every years But I missed them last year.They feed on the Red Silk cotton tree flowers which flowers at this time. JJ
Hello Friends,
Since last four years, I able to record ‘Arrival Time’ of Starling bird, which was submitted during particular year. This year I recorded ‘Departure Time’ of this lovely bird.
this bird Re-leaved Sangola (Drought prone region) Dist. Soalpur Maharashtra (India)on 23rd March 2019.
Thanking you,
Dr. Vidhin Kamble (India)
Thank you for this Sir. Very interesting information. You may have seen that MigrantWatch has now shifted to the larger eBird platform (ebird.org/india). Please do consider recording your observations on eBird so that they join observations from thousands of birders like you across the country. Here is a quick-start guide to eBird
https://birdcount.in/getting-started/ebird/
To give you an idea of the power of eBird, here is the map for Rosy Starling:
https://ebird.org/india/map/rossta2
And here is the seasonal chart for Maharashtra:
https://ebird.org/india/barchart?r=IN-MH&bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2019&spp=rossta2
Don’t forget starting comes to Ladakh too from May and stay up to Sept.
Kindly read Sterlings instead of starting please
As per the website they are due in June/July but they arrive in and around Delhi mid April every year. Right now one can see flocks wheeling around.
Thank you Sir. The article refers to arrival time from their breeding grounds in Central Asia. This happens in June/July. Then there is a return migration, as birds gather on their journey back to their breeding grounds. From this eBird link, you will see that, for Delhi and Haryana, the peak of return migration is in April, as you have described.
https://ebird.org/india/barchart?r=IN-DL,IN-HR&bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2022&spp=rossta2
Now it is April and R. Starling still murmuring in Solapur (Sangola. Maharashtra. Why they are here? Because during the Month of March, they go back.
Dr Kamble, it seems like Rosy Starlings are still around in Maharashtra in April, and their numbers go to near zero in May? Please see this weekly graph of reporting frequencies from eBird:
https://ebird.org/india/barchart?r=IN-MH&bmo=1&emo=12&byr=1900&eyr=2023&spp=rossta2