Long-tailed Glossy Starling

During my lunch break on this day I went to admire the exotic birds in the aviaries in the Abbey Gardens in Bury St Ed's. A lot of the birds here are from Senegambia in West Africa, a place which I visited in 2010. The area is one of the top birding hotspots in the world, and in the week we were there we saw 500+ species, including these gorgeous starlings which were about as common as blackbirds are over here in the UK.

I had mixed emotions about seeing them in enclosures in the British climate, although they are obviously well-cared for. Adult birds are quite big, at 54cm long (34 cm of which is just tail!). They are spectacular birds, especially in their natural environment when the sun catches them and the iridescent feathers really shine, and they leap about in Acacia trees making a real racket at 6am!