Lamprotornis shelleyi
Silhouette: Rafael Maia · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~10% in a week ~20%
Shelley's starling (Lamprotornis shelleyi) is a species of starling in the family Sturnidae. It is found in East Africa, within the borders of Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Somaliland, South Sudan, and Tanzania. The common name and Latin binomial commemorate George Ernest Shelley, an English ornithologist and nephew of poet Percy Bysshe Shelley. Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tsavo East National Park | 🇰🇪 Kenya |
More parks will be added in future updates.
Rare
Under 5% of wildlife watchers report a Shelley's Starling sighting in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, based on 16 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 261st most-seen of the 345 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 10%, and over a week to about 20%, if each day is a fresh chance.
July and October
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Shelley's Starling in Tsavo East National Park on a given day, against under 5% in August–September and November–June, the lowest months. Those are among Tsavo East National Park's driest months, with about 25 mm of rain a month against 130 mm in November.
Between 7 and 10 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Shelley's Starling sightings with a recorded time, and about 7 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is seen both by day and at night.
Only Tsavo East National Park, in our data
Tsavo East National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Shelley's Starling sightings: under 5% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
Same genus: Lamprotornis
The closest relatives of the Shelley's Starling that you can see in Tsavo East National Park (genus Lamprotornis, Glossy Starlings and Allies) are Superb Starling (about 70%), Fischer's Starling (about 60%) and Golden-breasted Starling (about 60%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Shelley's Starling is recorded against all the birds logged in Tsavo East National Park (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.
