Lamprotornis pulcher
Silhouette: Rafael Maia · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~50%
The chestnut-bellied starling (Lamprotornis pulcher) is a species of starling in the genus Lamprotornis in the family Sturnidae. This is a common resident in arid Sahelian acacia savanna, occurring in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, and Togo.
This is one of the rufous-bellied starlings, and the only one in most of its range. The pale eye differentiates it from Hildebrandt's starling and Shelley's starling, while the absence of a white breast band separates it from splendid starling. Predominantly glossy dark-green to blue, with a distinct dark (and not glossy) head and breast.
Birds of Africa South of Sahara, second edition; Ian Sinclair and Peter Ryan
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maiduguri | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 2 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-bellied Starling sighting in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 133rd most-seen of the 173 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 50%, if each day is a fresh chance.
February
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Chestnut-bellied Starling in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary on a given day, against under 5% in March, the lowest month. That is one of Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary's driest months, with almost no rain against 55 mm in August. May to October have too few records to rate.
Between 8 and 11 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Chestnut-bellied Starling sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary, in our data
Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Chestnut-bellied Starling sightings: about 10% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Lamprotornis
The closest relatives of the Chestnut-bellied Starling that you can see in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (genus Lamprotornis, Glossy Starlings and Allies) are Greater Blue-eared Starling (about 30%) and Long-tailed Glossy Starling (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Chestnut-bellied Starling is recorded against all the birds logged in Djoudj National Bird Sanctuary (16 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
