Hi,
I also want to add a few comments about the Rosy Starling:
The Rosy Starling is indeed a fairly regular migrant to western Europe. At the
moment there are, for example, quite a few in northern Germany. However,
around this time of the year almost all are first year birds. So the
appearance of an adult does not enhance the probability that it is indeed a
vagrant.
On the other hand I believe that (almost) all song birds which appear as
vagrants in countries with some ocean between this country and the country
these birds are native are ship assisted. Everyone who has been sailing
longer distances on the open ocean knows that one often collects a zoo of
song birds especially after storms. These birds often stay on board for days
and only leave if land is nearby. In Europe ship routes (and changing of ship
routes in time) help to understand the distribution of american vagrants.
So may be this Rosy Starling just by chance got onto a ship heading towards
Australia?
In any case its an excellent find and the debate vagrance/captive can be never
finally answered for a single bird.
Cheers,
Jesko
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