Acridotheres

Acridotheres is a genus of starlings, family Sturnidae, comprising 11 species native to tropical southern Asia from Iran east to southern China and Indonesia. Members are generally dark or dull birds with fluted calls typical of starlings, similar-plumaged sexes, large white or buff wing patches obvious in flight, and naked areas of skin on the head; several species have frontal crests that become covered with pollen when the birds take nectar from flowers, and may play a role in pollination. Two species have expanded well beyond their native range through introduction: the common myna now lives in South Africa, Israel, Hawaii, North America, Australia and New Zealand, and the crested myna occupies the Vancouver region of British Columbia.