Every few years there are numbers of this gaudy relative of the Starling seen in western Europe in late May/early June and now and again appreciable numbers of them get to the UK. This is one of those years! So check your fat balls and lawns for an exceptional looking starling – a Rose-coloured Starling. They aren’t difficult to identify.
For quite a few years this was the only species of bird that I had seen, but not seen through my binoculars. When I was working on Bee-eaters in the Camargue my hands were full of a Bee-eater I was ringing when a flock of these birds flew past and were gone. But, unmistakable!
Rare Bird Alert have done a review of sightings up to 8 June, with images of the birds – often in gardens with Starlings. And they are still arriving.
This really is a rare, and striking, bird that you might ‘easily’ see in your garden (there might be one there now) and you WILL be able to identify it. There was even one in a Northants garden a few days ago.
Grab your Rose-coloured Starling now – this is the best chance you’ll have for a few years.
Some Rose-coloured Starlings are seen in autumn in the UK, fairly regularly, but lots of them are young birds, which are a pale buffish colour and accurately known as Fawn Yawns.
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When I were t’ lad this bird was commonly referred to as the rosy pastor. It always particularly stood out because it was clearly A starling, but not THE starling and that somehow made evolution and speciation more evident for me than it usually did, 50% familiar, 50% exotic (the pinkish bits). I’m extremely jealous of anyone who has this turn up in their garden and it’s a good reminder that as far as natural history goes we’re all in the premier division, you may not be an Attenborough or Packham, but a rose coloured starling has as much chance of turning up at your bird table as theirs. Bloody magic!!
I’ve managed to see three of these over the years in the UK. A genuine “Pink Stink” singing from a Ripon chimney in 2000 and two “Fawn Yawns” both in Shetland during autumn visits ( by me and the birds).
We don’t get Starlings at all in our garden except during very snowy weather so it will have to be elsewhere and we are still being told here in Wales not to go more than five miles from home.
In 1998 i was in Georgia , with the full complement of the North West Raptor Protection Group,
guess who wandered off a short distance as a flock of Rosy Pastors came by.