---
title: "Chestnut-tailed Starling"
description: "Sturnia malabarica — Birds. The chestnut-tailed starling (Sturnia malabarica), also called grey-headed starling and grey-headed myna is a member of the starling family."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/animal/chestnut-tailed-starling
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Chestnut-tailed Starling

> Sturnia malabarica — Birds. The chestnut-tailed starling (Sturnia malabarica), also called grey-headed starling and grey-headed myna is a member of the starling family.

- Scientific name: *Sturnia malabarica*
- Category: `birds` (Birds)
- Habitats: `forest` (Forest)
- iNaturalist observations: 3868
- Wikidata: [Q1048674](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1048674)
- iNaturalist taxon: [145103](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/145103)

## Names

- en: Chestnut-tailed Starling
- de: Graukopfstar
- es: Estornino Malabar
- fr: Étourneau à tête grise
- nl: Grijskopspreeuw
- pt: Sturnus malabaricus
- pl: Szpak szarogłowy

## Countries with the most observations

IN (1672), TW (1102), TH (275), NP (162), BD (86), VN (65), CN (50), BT (31), MM (28), KH (17), HK (7), LA (3)

## Summary

The chestnut-tailed starling (Sturnia malabarica), also called grey-headed starling and grey-headed myna is a member of the starling family. It is a resident or partially migratory species found in wooded habitats in India and Southeast Asia. The species name is after the distribution of a former subspecies in the Malabar region. While the chestnut-tailed starling is a winter visitor to peninsular India, the closely related resident breeding population with a white head is now treated as a full species, the Malabar starling (Sturnia blythii).

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chestnut-tailed_starling

## Photo

![Chestnut-tailed Starling](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/chestnut-tailed-starling/medium.jpg)

Photo: Stephen Matthews · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/48426331

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/chestnut-tailed-starling?lang=en` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).