Rusty-winged Starling

Aplonis zelandica (Quoy & Gaimard, 1832)

Rusty-winged Starling, Aplonis zelandica, is a starling in the family Sturnidae and breeds in the Santa Cruz Islands and northern and central Vanuatu. It lives in subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. The species was first described in 1832 by Quoy and Gaimard. Its original type was wrongly thought to have come from New Zealand, but the locality is now fixed as Vanikoro in the Solomon Islands. It does not occur in New Zealand.

Order

Passeriformes

Family

Sturnidae — Starlings, Rhabdornises

Breeding range

Australasia: Santa Cruz Is. (=Temotu, se Solomon Is.) and n, c Vanuatu