_Aplonis opaca guami_ Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 9. (Type
locality, Guam).
_Turdus columbinus_ Lesson (part), Traité d'Ornith., 1831, p. 406
(Mariannes = Guam).
_Lamproth[ornis] opaca_ Kittlitz (part), Kupfertaf. Naturgesch.
Vögel, 2, 1833, p. 11, pl. 15, fig. 2 (Marianen = Guam); idem
(part), Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, pp.
298, 304 (Guahan).
_Lamprotornis columbinus_ Bonaparte (part), Consp. Avium, 1, 1850,
p. 417 (Mariann. =Guam).
_Lamprotornis columbina_ Hartlaub (part), Journ. f. Ornith., 1854,
p. 167 (Mariannen =Guam); Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer.
Micron, und Kamchat., 1, 1858, pp. 367, 376 (Guaham).
_Calornis opaca_ Gray (part), Cat. Birds Trop. Is. Pacific Ocean,
1859, p. 26 (Ladrone or Marian Is.); _idem_, (part), Hand-list
Birds, 2, 1870, p. 27 (Ladrone = Guam?).
_Calornis kittlitzi_ Finsch and Hartlaub (part), Fauna
Centralpolynesiens, 1867, p. 109 (Marianen = Guam?); Oustalet, Le.
Nat., 1889, p. 261 (Mariannes).
_Calornis columbina_ Giebel (part), Thes. Ornith., 2, 1875, p. 427
(Marianae = Guam?).
_Calornis pacificus_ Finsch (part), Journ. Mus. Godeffroy, 12,
1876, pp. 17, 32 Marianne).
_Aplonis kittlitzi_ Wiglesworth (part), Abhandl. und Ber. Zool.
Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 44 (Marianne; Oustalet
(part), Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 212
(Guam, Saypan); Hartert (part), Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 58
(Guam, Saipan); Wheeler, Report Island of Guam, 1900, p. 13
(Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1, 1901, p. 54
(Marianas); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Guam);
Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 69 (Guam); _idem_, The Plant World, 7,
1904, p. 264 (Guam); _idem_, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p.
79 (Guam); Mearns, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 36, 1909, p. 477 (Guam);
Takatsukasa and Kuroda (part), Tori, 1, 1915, p. 64 (Marianas);
Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 21 (Guam); Bryan, Guam Rec, vol. 13,
no. 2, 1936, p. 25 (Guam).
_Aplonis opaca_ Wetmore (part), in Townsend and Wetmore, Bull.
Mus. Comp. Zoöl., 63, 1919, p. 219 (Guam).
_Aplonis kittlitzi kurodai_ Momiyama, Tori, 2, 1920, p. (Saipan).
_Aplonis opaca guami_ Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922,
p. 71 (Guam); Mathews, Syst. Avium Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p.
847 (Guam); Yamashina, Tori, 7, 1932, p. 394 (Saipan, Rota);
Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 169 (Guam, Rota, Tinian,
Saipan).
_Aplonis opaca harterti_ Momiyama (part), Birds Micronesia, 1922,
p. 10 (Type locality, Saipan); Kuroda (part), in Momiyama, Birds
Micronesia, 1922, p. 71 (Saipan); Mathews, Syst. Avium
Australasianarum, 2, 1930, p. 847 (Saipan).
_Aplornis opaca harterti_ Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Dobutsu.
Zasshi, 43, 1931, p. 487 (Saipan).
_Aplornis opaca guami_ Takatsukasa and Yamashina, Dobutsu. Zasshi,
44, 1932, p. 221 (Tinian, Rota); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed.,
1942, p. 188 (Saipan, Tinian, Rota, Guam).
_Aplonis opacus guami_ Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 297
(Guam, Rota, Tinian, Saipan); Watson, The Raven, 17, 1946, p. 41
(Guam); Downs, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 49, 1946, p. 103
(Tinian); Stott, Auk, 1947, p. 527 (Saipan, Guam); Baker,
Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 69 (Guam, Rota,
Tinian, Saipan).
_Aplonis opacus_ Wharton, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, p. 174 (Guam);
Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 540 (Guam); Baker, Condor, 49, 1947, p.
125 (Guam).
_Geographic range._--Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Guam, Rota,
Tinian, Saipan.
_Characters._--Adult: Resembles closely _A. o. angus_ in the
amount of greenish gloss present on the body feathers, but with
slightly shorter and deeper bill.
Immature: Resembles the immature of _A. o. angus_ but streaks on
underparts brighter and less-dingy yellow.
_Measurements._--Measurements are listed in table 45. The writer
(1948:69) has given average measurements for the length of wing of
adult males from Guam as 127, from Rota as 122, from Tinian as
131, and from Saipan as 131; for depth of bill of adult males from
Guam as 9.0, from Rota as 9.0, from Tinian as 9.5, and from Saipan
as 10.0.
_Weights._--The NAMRU2 party obtained weights of six adult males
from Guam as 84-96 (87); of eight adult females from Guam as 78-108
(86); of two juvenal males from Guam as 88 and 90; of five juvenal
females from Guam as 77-87 (80); of two adult males from Rota as 70
and 83; and of five juvenal males from Rota as 64-80 (76).
_Specimens examined._--Total number, 95 (55 males, 37 females, 3
unsexed), as follows: Mariana Islands, USNM--Guam, 44 (Jan. 21, 22,
Feb. 5, March 8, 13, April 12, May 18, 22, 24, 27, 29, 30, June 3,
4, 6, 14, 16, 18, July 6, 7, 14, 20, Aug. 24, Oct. 8, Nov. 19,
23)--Rota, 12 (Oct. 18, 19, 26, 27, Nov. 2)--Tinian, 4 (Oct. 12,
18); AMNH--Guam, 16 (Jan. 23, 24, 29, March 3, 12, 13, 24, May,
Aug. 12, Nov. 23, 28, Dec. 26)--Tinian, 15 (Sept. 7, 8, 10, 11,
12)--Saipan, 4 (July 9, 17, Aug. 26, Sept. 2).
_Nesting._--The NAMRU2 party found evidence of nesting by starlings
at Guam as early as January 28, in 1945. On this date a bird was
seen to carry food into a hollow tree at Oca Point. Signs of
nesting activities were observed in the months that followed, the
last record being obtained on June 11. Starlings nest in cavities
in trees, in holes in rocky cliffs, and probably in the tops of
coconut palms. On June 2 a nest was found by Muennink in a cavity
of a banyan tree at Oca Point, Guam. The nest was approximately 12
feet from the ground and consisted of a flattened mass of green
foliage at the bottom of the cavity. Two eggs found in the nest
have been described by the author (1948:69) as "Niagara green" with
scattered, irregular spots of color, near "russet," "Mars brown"
and "pallid purple-drab," most abundant near the large ends.
Measurements are 32.1 by 22.1 and 32.0 by 22.4.
Yamashina (1932a:394) records two eggs taken at Saipan on April
14, 1931; two eggs taken at Rota on March 10, 1931; and one egg
taken at Rota on March 11, 1931. Seale (1901:54) writes that the
starling nests in a hole in the dead trunk of the coconut palm and
may lay three or four eggs. Hartert (1898:59) reports that two
eggs were taken at Guam on March 11.
_Food habits._--Probably the chief food of the starling at Guam is
the fruit and seeds of the papaya. This plant grows in most parts
of the island, especially in the lowlands where land uses have
disturbed the climax vegetation. Many of the garden plots lay
fallow during the war and were allowed to grow up in thick stands
of papaya. As a fruit began to ripen, the starlings would peck out
one side of a ripe fruit, feeding on the tissues and the seeds. It
was seldom that a fully ripe papaya fruit was found that had not
been at least partly eaten by the starlings. Apparently the birds
do not feed on the fruit before it is fully ripened. Seeds of
other types of vegetation were also eaten by the birds.
_Parasites._--Wharton (1946:174) records the chigger (Acarina),
_Trombicula_ sp., from the starling at Guam.
_Remarks._--According to Oustalet (1895:212), the starling was taken in
the Marianas by the expedition in the "Uranie" in 1820 and by the
expedition in the "Astrolabe" in 1829. Kittlitz, who visited Guam from
March 1-20, 1828, also recorded the starling. It was not until 1922,
however, that the starling in the Marianas was recognized as
subspecifically distinct from the birds in the Carolines and Palaus.
The Japanese ornithologists named the bird at Guam as _A. o. guami_ and
the bird at Saipan as _A. o. harterti_, but later regarded these as a
single subspecies _A. o. guami_. Momiyama (1920:2) had, previously to
the naming of the new forms in the Marianas, considered the bird at
Saipan as belonging to the same subspecies as that found at Yap. Among
named kinds, _A. o. guami_ found at Guam, Rota, Tinian, and Saipan
appears to be most closely related to _A. o. angus_. These two
subspecies differ in that the streaking of the underparts in the
immatures is brighter in _A. o. guami_ and duller in _A. o. angus_. The
bird at Saipan has a longer wing and a deeper bill than the bird at
Guam; however, birds at Tinian show intermediate measurements.
At Guam, the starling is the most numerous land bird. The writer
(1947b:124), in counting birds along the roadways of Guam, recorded the
starling on all of the 125 counts and found the birds to include more
than one-half (57.3 percent) of all the birds seen. Starlings may have
increased during the years of the war, with the disruption of normal
agricultural activities allowing the growth of papaya and other food
plants in fallow areas; however, the use of the birds as food by the
islanders probably increased during the war.
As at other islands in Micronesia, the numbers of birds in immature
plumage at Guam seemingly exceeds the number of birds in adult plumage.
Animals which may prey on the starling at Guam include the feral house
cat, _Rattus mindanensis_, _Corvus kubaryi_, and the large lizard
_Varanus indicus_. The starling spends little time on the ground; it
feeds principally in the trees, which might limit the amount of damage
done to it by the feral house cats which are numerous on the island. The
rat, _R. mindanensis_, is a semi-arboreal animal and may feed on eggs
and young birds in nest cavities of trees or on cliffs. The crow, _C.
kubaryi_, has a reputation for stealing chicken eggs from poultry yards
and may prey on the eggs and young of the starling. The monitor lizard,
_V. indicus_, is known to prey on the starling, as well as on the
domestic chickens at farm houses. On January 31, 1945, one of these
large lizards was seen descending a tree after robbing a nest of a
starling; one of the starling's eggs was seen in the mouth of the
lizard. The noise and commotion set up by the parent birds and by other
starlings, which had been attracted to the area, did not appear to
perturb the uninvited guest.
Downs (1946:103) writes that the starling at Tinian is less common than
the white-eye, _Zosterops conspicillata saypani_. Gleize (1945:220)
estimated the population of starlings on Tinian at 200. Coultas (field
notes) found the starling abundant at Tinian in 1931, but he did not
find the bird at Saipan. According to Stott (1947:527), the starling was
abundant at Guam but "appeared to be common only locally on Saipan." He
saw large flocks at the Marpi Point and Kingman Point areas on Saipan
but found the bird less numerous elsewhere on the island. At Rota, the
NAMRU2 party found the birds to be numerous and widely distributed over
the island in 1945.
At Guam, the present writer observed behavior of the starling on January
31, 1945, which may have been a courtship ceremony. Two adults were
perched on a palm frond approximately 20 feet above the ground. The bird
which was perched more distally on the frond opened its tail
fan-fashion, spread its wings and at irregular intervals picked up in
its beak a part of the frond and then released it. As this behavior was
taking place, the birds would call in a sweet ascending song, which
reminded me very much of the song of the redwing blackbird of North
America. This was indeed a contrast to the usual squawking notes of this
subspecies.
=Aplonis opacus aeneus= (Takatsukasa and Yamashina)