Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun A taxonomic genus within the family Sturnidae — the starlings.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin sturnus ("starling").

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Examples

  • Say, isn't that a Sturnus vulgaris rather than a Corvus brachyrhynchos?

    Crows Birds stealing coins from car wash? - Boing Boing 2008

  • Thus, the common European starling goes by the scientific name of Sturnus vulgaris, Sturnus being the genus of starlings and vulgaris meaning "common."

    Lazarus, Elvis, zombies and Jimmy Hoffa Edward Willett 2007

  • Birds considered to be endangered or rare are Sri Lanka wood pigeon Columba torringtoni, green-billed coucal Centropus chlororhynchus, Sri Lanka white-headed starling Sturnus senex, Sri Lanka blue magpie Cissa ornata, and ashy-headed babbler Garrulax cinereifrons, all of which are endemic, and red-faced malkoha Phaenicophaeus pyrrhocephalus.

    Sinharaja Forest Reserve, Sri Lanka 2008

  • From Earth Science Picture of the Day, the amorphous, self-organizing and self-destructing parkless park as breathtakingly enacted by a million European starlings: During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in the incredible formations shown above.

    The Parkless Park Resurfaces 2006

  • From Earth Science Picture of the Day, the amorphous, self-organizing and self-destructing parkless park as breathtakingly enacted by a million European starlings: During spring in Denmark, at approximately one half an hour before sunset, flocks of more than a million European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) gather from all corners to join in the incredible formations shown above.

    Archive 2006-06-01 2006

  • No native passerine have been recorded, but redpoll (Acanthis flammea) and common starling (Sturnus vulgaris) are both widespread and common.

    MacQuarie Island, Australia 2008

  • The Himalayan starling (_Sturnus humii_) is so like his European brother in appearance that it is scarcely possible to distinguish between the two species unless they are seen side by side.

    Birds of the Indian Hills Douglas Dewar 1916

  • Its notes and flight are very much those of the Starling (_Sturnus vulgaris_), and it delights to take a short and rapid flight and return twittering to perch on the very summit of the forest trees.

    The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

  • _Sturnus minor_ by Mr. Hume; and as I have now sent Mr. Hume a series of skins and eggs, I trust he will give us a note on the subject of our Indian Starlings.

    The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

  • Cashmere as _Sturnus vulgaris_, which bird does not, as far as I can learn, occur in the Valley of Cashmere, though it may in Yarkand.

    The Nests and Eggs of Indian Birds, Volume 1 Allan Octavian Hume 1870

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