Word.ws English Dictionary

violet-backed starling

violet-backed starling noun: cinnyricinclus leucogaster, a relatively small species (17 cm) of starling, the male of which has an iridescent violet head and back and pure white underparts, and the female a thrush-like appearance with brown, boldly-streaked upper parts and white, heavily-streaked underparts.

Noun

violet-backed starling (plural violet-backed starlings)

  1. Cinnyricinclus leucogaster, a relatively small species (17 cm) of starling, the male of which has an iridescent violet head and back and pure white underparts, and the female a thrush-like appearance with brown, boldly-streaked upper parts and white, heavily-streaked underparts.
    • Pearl-breasted swallows swooped low over the grass beside the runway, and as they made their way across the tarmac towards the airport building they almost tripped over a small flock of violet-backed starlings.2008, Nicholas Drayson, chapter 22, in A Guide to the Birds of East Africa, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 106
    • Two-dimensional arrays are formed by a tight and orderly packing of melanin rods. Figure 4.24C shows the hexagonal packing structure of hollow rods responsible for the iridescent violet feathers of the striking violet-backed starling.2011, Jack W. Bradbury, Sandra L[ee] Vehrencamp, “Structural colors”, in Principles of Animal Communication, 2nd edition, Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, Inc., →ISBN, chapter 4 (Light and...

Synonyms of violet-backed starling

Forms of violet-backed starling

pluralviolet-backed starlings

Questions about violet-backed starling

What does violet-backed starling mean?
Violet-backed starling means cinnyricinclus leucogaster, a relatively small species (17 cm) of starling, the male of which has an iridescent violet head and back and pure white underparts, and the female a thrush-like appearance with brown, boldly-streaked upper parts and white, heavily-streaked underparts.
What part of speech is violet-backed starling?
Violet-backed starling is a noun.
What is the plural of violet-backed starling?
The plural of violet-backed starling is violet-backed starlings.

Words near violet-backed starling in the dictionary

  1. Violet Town
  2. violet tree
  3. violet trees
  4. violet wand
  5. violet wands
  6. violet-backed starling
  7. violet-backed starlings
  8. violet-bellied hummingbird
  9. violet-green swallow
  10. violet-green swallows
  11. violet-tip

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: violet-backed starling (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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