A Starling gets its Spots

This immature European Starling (above) is beginning to molt from its juvenile plumage, which would be an even drab grayish-brown, into a non-breeding adult. On the cropped photo below, we can see the iridescent feathers on the greater coverts (part of the wing) with cinnamon fringes, as well as the beginnings of its white spotted belly, which it only has in non-breeding plumage.

Though many would like to call the ubiquitous and much maligned Sturnus vulgaris (European Starling), the Vulgar Starling, the Latin Sturnus means ‘a starling’, and vulgaris, ‘common’. The word starling could have come from the small white belly spots that may have reminded Linnaeus, who named this species, of small stars.