• Summary
• Text account
• Data table and detailed info
• Distribution map
• Reference and further resources

Taxonomic note
Aplonis metallica and A. circumscripta (Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International 2020) have been split from Aplonis metallica (del Hoyo and Collar 2016), after an assessment of 24 specimens in four museums and literature review (Collar 2018). 

A. circumscripta is consistently diagnosed from metallica by its (1) short-feathered clear-cut inverted-U-shaped purple chin-patch, (2) large purple mantle-patch and correspondingly very narrow green hind-collar, and (3) average shorter bill and wings but, in males, notably longer central rectrices, strongly indicating that species rank is indeed appropriate for the taxon, for which the vernacular name Purple-chinned Starling is proposed.

Taxonomic source(s)
Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International. 2020. Handbook of the Birds of the World and BirdLife International digital checklist of the birds of the world. Version 5. Available at: https://datazone.birdlife.org/userfiles/file/Species/Taxonomy/HBW-BirdLife_Checklist_v5_Dec20.zip.

Red List criteria met

Critically Endangered	Endangered	Vulnerable
-	-	-

Red List history

Year	Category	Criteria
2020	Least Concern
2016	Not Recognised
2012	Not Recognised
2008	Not Recognised
2004	Not Recognised
2000	Not Recognised
1994	Not Recognised
1988	Not Recognised

Migratory status	not a migrant	Forest dependency	medium
Land-mass type		Average mass	-

	Estimate	Data quality
Extent of Occurrence (breeding/resident)	5,700,000 km2	medium
Severely fragmented?	no	-

	Estimate	Data quality	Derivation	Year of estimate
Population size	unknown	-	-	-
Population trend	decreasing	-	suspected	2013-2024
Rate of change over the past 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	10-15%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	10-15%	-	-	-
Rate of change over the past & future 10 years/3 generations (longer of the two periods)	10-15%	-	-	-
Generation length	3.8 years	-	-	-

Population justification: The species was recently split, previously being lumped with Purple-chinned Starling (A. circumscripta) under A. metallica (Collar 2018). The global population size of Metallic Starling has thus not been quantified, but is considered to be generally common across most of its range. The species also occurs at higher densities in secondary habitats such as coconut plantations and mangroves (G. Dutson in litt. 2020). Population density estimates measured at 3 birds/hectare in primary lowland forests and 1-7.5 birds/hectare in degraded lowland habitats and mangroves on Kolombangara (Buckingham et al. 1990) therefore suggest that the overall population may be large and numerous. Recent surveys in New Britain, Papua New Guinea also showed that the species remains common in oil palm plantations, being recorded in 60% of all forests observed (R. Davis in litt. 2020).

Trend justification: The population trend is difficult to determine because of uncertainty over the impacts of habitat modification on population sizes. However, assuming that population declines are occurring at the same rate as forest loss, recent forest loss analysis (per Tracewski et al. 2016, Global Forest Watch 2020) suggests the species is undergoing a decline at a rate of c. 14% over a three-generation period (11.4 years; Bird et al. 2020). Pressures from hunting for food may additionally exacerbate population declines over forest loss alone. However, as the species commonly occurs in plantations and secondary forests however, it is though to be tolerant of some degraded habitats. The rate of decline is therefore tentatively placed in the band of 10-15%.

Country/Territory	Presence	Origin	Resident	Breeding visitor	Non-breeding visitor	Passage migrant
Australia	extant	native	yes
Indonesia	extant	native	yes
Papua New Guinea	extant	native	yes
Solomon Islands	extant	native	yes

Country/Territory	IBA Name

Habitat (level 1)	Habitat (level 2)	Importance	Occurrence
Artificial/Terrestrial	Plantations	suitable	resident
Artificial/Terrestrial	Rural Gardens	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Mangrove Vegetation Above High Tide Level	suitable	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Lowland	major	resident
Forest	Subtropical/Tropical Moist Montane	suitable	resident
Savanna	Dry	suitable	resident
Altitude		Occasional altitudinal limits	(max) 3000 m

Threat (level 1)	Threat (level 2)	Impact and Stresses
Agriculture & aquaculture	Wood & pulp plantations - Agro-industry plantations	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Slow, Significant Declines		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species disturbance
Biological resource use	Hunting & trapping terrestrial animals - Intentional use (species is the target)	Timing		Scope		Severity		Impact
		Ongoing		Minority (<50%)		Causing/Could cause fluctuations		Low Impact: 5
		Stresses Species mortality

Purpose	Scale
Pets/display animals, horticulture	international

---

Recommended citation
BirdLife International (2024) Species factsheet: Metallic Starling Aplonis metallica. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/metallic-starling-aplonis-metallica on 18/12/2024.
Recommended citation for factsheets for more than one species: BirdLife International (2024) IUCN Red List for birds. Downloaded from https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/search on 18/12/2024.