Animalia > Chordata > Aves > Passeriformes > Sturnidae > Aplonis > Aplonis atrifusca

Aplonis atrifusca (Samoan Starling)

Synonyms: Aplonas atrifusca

Wikipedia Abstract

The Samoan starling (Aplonis atrifusca) is a large starling of the family Sturnidae. It is found in American Samoa and Samoa. The species has a dark brown, glossy appearance, with a long bill. Its natural habitat is tropical moist forest on volcanic islands, where it is common and more conspicuous than the Polynesian starling, which is found in the same habitat. Vocalizations include various whistles and other sounds. This starling feeds on a variety of fruits, especially guava, and insects. Little is known of its mating or social habits, but it appears to nest year-round, in tree cavities. Its eggs are pale blue.
View Wikipedia Record: Aplonis atrifusca

EDGE Analysis

Uniqueness Scale: Similiar (0) 
1
 Unique (100)
Uniqueness & Vulnerability Scale: Similiar & Secure (0) 
9
 Unique & Vulnerable (100)
ED Score: 2.91117
EDGE Score: 1.36384

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  141 grams
Male Weight [3]  146 grams
Diet [2]  Carnivore (Invertebrates), Frugivore, Nectarivore
Diet - Fruit [2]  70 %
Diet - Invertibrates [2]  20 %
Diet - Nectar [2]  10 %
Forages - Canopy [2]  40 %
Forages - Mid-High [2]  60 %

Ecoregions

Name Countries Ecozone Biome Species Report Climate Land
Use
Samoan tropical moist forests Samoa, United States Oceania Tropical and Subtropical Moist Broadleaf Forests

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
National Park of American Samoa II   American Samoa, United States    

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Polynesia-Micronesia Fiji, Micronesia, Polynesia, Samoa, Tonga, United States Yes

Prey / Diet

Carica papaya (papaya)[1]

Prey / Diet Overlap

Competing SpeciesCommon Prey Count
Aplonis opaca (Micronesian starling)1
Prosopeia tabuensis (Maroon Shining Parrot)1
Pteropus tonganus (Pacific flying fox)1

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
1del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona.
2Hamish Wilman, Jonathan Belmaker, Jennifer Simpson, Carolina de la Rosa, Marcelo M. Rivadeneira, and Walter Jetz. 2014. EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95:2027
3Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0