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Cellpic Sunday – Glossy Starlings

Hey! Where’s my food?

Kruger National Park.

We sometimes found our breakfast break on our morning game drives at the Tshokwane Trading Post and Picnic Site. We were wise to guard our food as the glossy starlings were unafraid to steal from our plates. Once our breakfast plates were empty and set aside, the starlings lined up, hoping to find a snack. We don’t feed the wildlife, so the birds were disappointed with us.

According to Google, the glossy starling isn’t a single species but a general term for a group of starlings in the family Sturnidae that share a common trait: brilliantly iridescent plumage.

Glossy starlings are found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, inhabiting a variety of environments. They can thrive in diverse habitats, including forests, woodlands, savannas, grasslands, and even urban areas. This adaptability contributes to their success and wide distribution.

About the photo: I captured it with my Samsung S23U. The birds paid no attention to me as I stole this snapshot before shooing them away (yet again). I did a quick “point and shoot” and let the camera handle the details in creating the JPEG file.

I imported it into Lightroom Classic, selected a suitable crop, and sent it to Luminar for additional tweaks, one of which involved using the Supersharp module. Looking at the processed photo, though, Supersharp accentuated a white halo around the bird and didn’t really improve the sharpness of the image. I removed the sharpening, added a linear gradient at the top to darken the area of the bright sky in the background, and used Enhanced AI to better light the foreground. To view the image in 2K HD with a dark background on my Flickr site, click on it.

I encourage fellow bloggers to create their own Cellpic Sunday posts. I never have a specific topic for this feature, and the only rules are that the photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or another mobile device… If you have an image from a drone or even a dashcam, that’s also acceptable. The second rule is to link your challenge response to this post or leave a comment here with a link to your post in the comment. Oh, you don’t have to post it on a Sunday.

John Steiner

34 comments

  2. Their eyes make them look almost comical. Many birds have found that peoples leftovers are a good snack unless the wait staff are quick.

    One resort I stayed in had seagulls hanging around and guests were asked to take their plates in when finished. I watched as a woman took her food from the smorgasboard and then foolishly went back to get a cup of tea. Her breakfast was swarmed and gone before anyone could react.

    Here’s my next edition in the bench series

    https://bushboy.blog/2025/03/02/a-bench-and-first-nation-street-art-5/

    Reply

    • Another story I like to tell (with no pics, unfortunately,) was when I waited outside the gift shop for my wife. A lady was sitting on a picnic bench with a sack in front of her on the table. A small monkey came bounding out of the trees, hopped on the table, grabbed an orange out of her bag and quickly disappeared much to the surprise of the lady.

      Reply

  9. Dear John

    We have black birds like this but they don’t have these impressive yellow eyes. Dina is always surrounded by her birds when going in the garden.

    Perfect edited picture 👍 👍

    All the best and a happy week
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Reply

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