Bali Starling Leucopsar rothschildi
The Bali Starling, also called the Bali Mynah, is critically endangered since it has an extremely small
remaining range in the wild in its native Bali, Indonesia, and is still suffering poaching.
However, since 1983 the Bali Starling Project has bolstered the wild population of less than 100 birds by breeding and release of captive birds.
The truly wild original flock continues to decline.
The Bali Starling is a beautiful white-plumaged bird (difficult to catch in a photo without over-exposure washing out the detail)
with black wing-tips and tail-tip and bright blue bare facial skin around the eyes making it look blue-eyed.
The bill shape is not a typical long, straight bill of most starlings but a shorter, more curved beak.
Male and female have similar plumage. He has a longer crest.
Not a partridge in a pear tree but a starling in a fig tree.
The wild population reportedly fell to only 6 birds in 2001.
