Lamprotornis bicolor
Silhouette: Rafael Maia · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~80% in a week >90%
The pied starling or African pied starling (Lamprotornis bicolor) is a bird endemic to South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini. It is common in most of its range, but largely absent from the arid northwest and the eastern lowlands of South Africa. It is found in open habitats such as grassland, karoo scrub, thornbush and agricultural land, and often associates with farm animals.
The pied starling was formally described in 1789 by the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin in his revised and expanded edition of Carl Linnaeus's Systema Naturae. He placed it with the thrushes in the genus Turdus and coined the binomial name Turdus bicolor. Gmelin based his description on "Le merle brun du cap de Bonne Espérance" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his book Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux. The pied starling is now placed in the genus Lamprotornis that was introduced in 1820 by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The adult of this 27–28 cm (11 in) long starling has mainly dully glossed black plumage except for a white lower belly and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Golden Gate Highlands National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | West Coast National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 3 | De Hoop Nature Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 4 | Addo Elephant National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 5 | uMkhuze Game Reserve | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 6 | Kruger National Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pretoria | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Johannesburg | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | World of Birds Wildlife Sanctuary and Monkey Park | 🇿🇦 South Africa | |
| 2 | Birds of Eden | 🇿🇦 South Africa |
Likely
About 50% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Starling sighting in West Coast National Park on a given day, based on 596 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 42nd most-seen of the 192 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 80%, and over a week to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June and October
In those months about 70% of wildlife watchers report a Pied Starling in West Coast National Park on a given day, against about 30% in December, the lowest month. Those are among West Coast National Park's wettest months, with about 45 mm of rain a month against 5 mm in February.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Pied Starling sightings with a recorded time, and nearly all of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
2nd of 6
Of the 6 parks where we can rate Pied Starling sightings, West Coast National Park ranks 2nd at about 50%. The best odds are in Golden Gate Highlands National Park (South Africa, about 70%). All parks ranked.
Same family: Sturnidae
The closest relatives of the Pied Starling that you can see in West Coast National Park (family Sturnidae, Starlings) are European Starling (about 60%) and Wattled Starling (about 10%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Pied Starling is recorded against all the birds logged in West Coast National Park (596 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.
