Ensfarvet Stær - bestemmelse

Som frygtet og forudsagt sænkede kenderne Tane Sø Stæren på grundlag af billederne, hvorfor det endnu engang må påpeges, at skal fuglen accepteres som en Ensfarvet Stær uden bøvl, så skal der fremvise billeder, som kan få selv kenderne til ændre mening. På grundlag af den sparsomme tekst i danske feltbøger, så bringer phyl.dk et uddrag om Ensfarvet Stær fra Cramps glimrende Handbook of the Birds of Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, The Birds of Western Palearctic. Volume VIII, Crows to Jays. Bemærk det er kun et uddrag, idet teksten er ca. 10 sider lang. For yderligere uddybende information henvises der til ovenstående bog. Det må være op til den enkelte at afgøre, i hvor høj grad nedenstående matcher med den aktuelle fugl samt Ricard Gutiérrez's kommentarer.

Field Characters
21-23 cm; Wing-span 38-42 cm. Slightly larger than Starling S. vulgaris (particularly male), though with similar structure; adult has distinctly more elongated feathers on head and throat. Medium sized starling of similar form and behaviour to S. vulgaris but adult differs noticeably in black and evenly glossed, virtually unspotted plumage.

Adult Male
Moults: June-October (complete). Never shows any spots at any time. Black, more evenly and less intensely glossed than S. vulgaris: green-purple when fresh, dull purple when worn and then virtually unmarked except for paler purple margins to larger wing-feathers, particularly tertials. Lanceolate feathers of head and throat up to twice as long as those of S. vulgaris, making the bird look more bearded and also lose-feathered around neck. Bill pale yellow with bluish-black base in breeding season, becoming dusky or black in winter. Legs pale pink to brownish-flesh, in breeding season some appearing distinctly paler than S. vulgaris.

Population
Recent increase in northern Spain, accompanying spread to east.
Spain: Common, increasing
France: Small numbers in south, where recently spread from Spain. Sparsely distributed in Corsica
Italy: Sparsely distributed in Sicily

Movements
Resident, or partial short-distance migrant, subject to nomadic dispersal.
Of 24 birds ringed as nestlings in Spain, 59% recovered no more than 9 km from nest, 37% 9-99 km and 4% further than 500 km. Mean distance moved by adults 32,3 km (0-159 km, n = 19), young birds 41,9 km (0-701 km, n = 24). Longest recoveries probably due to individuals flying with wintering flocks of S. vulgaris.

Plumages
Adult Male
In fresh plumage (September-January), entirely black. Elongated feathers from crown to back, on side of head and neck, and from chin to breast with slight but variable grey bloom (sometimes absent), fringes along sides of elongated feather-tips sometimes faintly margined grey (especially on mantle, side of neck, and chin to breast), but no pale spots or V-marks on feather-tips; gloss rather faint, oily purple. Remainder of body generally without grey bloom, unspotted, more glossy; gloss on rump and upper tail-coverts green or purple (depending on light), on flank, belly, and under tail-coverts mainly green. Tail dull black with slight bronze or grey fringe, tips and outer webs of feathers broadly fringed velvety-black (glossed purple in some lights); feather-tips pointed, tips of inner web of t2-t6 concave. Secondaries, tertials, and inner primaries as tail, showing bronze tinge with contrasting velvety-black fringes along tips; black fringes along outer webs of secondaries and tertials strongly glossed purple or violet-purple; outer webs of outer primaries sometimes with faint and narrow pale edges. All upper wing-coverts strongly glossed green or purple on outer webs (depending on light), median and greater coverts strongly glossed purple or violet-purple. Axillaries and under wing-coverts uniform black, some shorter coverts sometimes with faint grey edges.
In worn plumage (February-June), grey bloom on head, neck, and fore-part of body worn off, head to mantle, side of head and neck, and chin to chest deep black with oily-purple gloss (slightly green in some lights), remainder of body glossed oil-green (all gloss of body less strong than in S. vulgaris), lesser upper wing-coverts and fringes of primary coverts and primaries strongly glossed green, fringes of median and greater coverts, tertials, and secondaries strongly violet-purple. When heavily worn, July-August, head and body less glossy, mainly sooty-black.


First Adult Male
Like adult male, but tail feathers less pointed (as in 1st adult S. vulgaris); length of longest throat feathers 24-300 mm (in adult male, 27-41 mm). In fresh plumage, September or October to January, black of head, neck, and fore-part of body usually tinged grey (but much less so than in adult female); tiny pale V-marks on feather-tips of body present, as in adult female, but marks often more profuse, extending to head and tail-coverts; traces of pale edges present along flight-feathers. In worn plumage, pale marks and edges worn off, plumage uniformly glossy black (more so than in adult female).

Geographical variation
Following recent spread of both species, breeding ranges now show slight overlap; no hybrids yet known. In captivity, forced mixed pairings of female S. unicolor and male S.vulgaris either did not breed at all, or laid infertile eggs, or embryos died in egg, or produced young with various abnormalities, none of which survived for more than 18 days.