Birds
Somali starling (Onychognathus blythii)
The Somali starling (Onychognathus blythii) is a starling of Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and the island of Socotra. In Somalia most of its shared records come from Sanaag and Woqooyi Galbeed. The IUCN Red List lists it as Least Concern.
In short
The Somali starling (Onychognathus blythii) is a bird of the starling family, Sturnidae. It is found in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and on Socotra, the Yemeni island east of the Horn (IUCN Red List, Onychognathus blythii, 2016).
Hartlaub described it in 1859 under another genus; the brackets around the author's name in its scientific name show that it has since been moved to Onychognathus (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).
Habitat
In the Dogu'a Tembien district of northern Ethiopia, it has been recorded in bushy and shrubby areas (Nyssen and others, Geo-trekking in Ethiopia's Tropical Mountains, Springer, 2019). In Somalia, its shared records are concentrated in Sanaag and Woqooyi Galbeed, in the northern highlands (see records below).
Records in Somali lands
The Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) holds 104 records of the Somali starling from Somalia, dated from 1896 to 2025 (GBIF occurrence search, Somalia). By type: 73 sightings by people, 31 museum specimens.
Records that name a region (74 of 104), by region: Sanaag 44, Woqooyi Galbeed 16, Togdheer 8, Bari 3, Sool 2, Awdal 1 (same source).
The oldest dated record is a museum specimen from 1896, from a place recorded as "Jerato Pass", held by the Field Museum, Chicago (GBIF record 668178070).
The newest dated record is a sighting by a person from 2025, from Sanaag, held by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (eBird) (GBIF record 6613865907).
GBIF only holds what museums, scientists and observers have shared, so the counts show where the animal or plant has been recorded, not its full range.
Red List status
The IUCN Red List category for the Somali starling is Least Concern (IUCN Red List assessment; GBIF species page).
Classification
| Rank | Name |
|---|---|
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Aves |
| Order | Passeriformes |
| Family | Sturnidae |
| Genus | Onychognathus |
| Species | Onychognathus blythii |
Scientific name with author: Onychognathus blythii (Hartlaub, 1859) (GBIF Backbone Taxonomy).
Related pages
Sources
Sources
- IUCN Red List, Onychognathus blythii, 2016 · doi.org
- GBIF Backbone Taxonomy · gbif.org
- Nyssen and others, Geo-trekking in Ethiopia's Tropical Mountains, Springer, 2019 · springer.com
- GBIF occurrence search, Somalia · gbif.org
- GBIF record 668178070 · gbif.org
- GBIF record 6613865907 · gbif.org
- Wikipedia (backup) · en.wikipedia.org
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