Chestnut-winged Starling (Onychognathus fulgidus) [XC144848]
by Peter Boesman from Monte Carmo, Sao Tome, Sao Tome (call)
Chestnut-winged Starling (Onychognathus fulgidus) [XC719338]
by Peter Boesman from Kakum National Park, Ghana (call)
Subspecies
Subspecies sometimes treated as two separate species. Notable variation, but much local overlap prevents meaningful classification into more than one mainland subspecies: birds eastern and southern from Cameroon sometimes separated as subspecies intermedius, supposedly intermediate in size between nominate and hartlaubii and with more bluish iridescence on head. Birds of Upper Guinea previously separated as subspecies harterti; name hartlaubii, with type locality of Bioko, thus variously applied to groups of western or east, or, as here, to all mainland populations. Proposed subspecies leoninus (Sierra Leone) included within hartlaubii.
The following 3 subspecies are recognised:
fulgidus Hartlaub, 1849 - Sío Tomé I, in Gulf of Guinea.
hartlaubii Hartlaub, 1858 - Southern Guinea, northern and southern Sierra Leone and Liberia east to Ghana, southern Nigeria, and southern Cameroon south, including Bioko I (Fernando Póo), to northern Angola (east to north-western Lunda Norte) and east to southern Sudan (Begengai), western Uganda and north-eastern and east-central DRCongo.
intermedius Hartert, 1895 - Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet