Metallic Starling

21-24 cm. Highly sociable, migratory black bird with oily green/purple gloss, bulging bright red eye and pointed tail; neck feathers long, pointed. Bill, legs blackish. Immature: dark brown shot green above, whitish below, streaked darker; eye brown, then red. Parties to large flocks after breeding. Forages on fruit/seeds of rainforest trees, nectar, insects. When nesting, incessant, noisy coming/going to colonies. Some breed while still in imm. plumage. Tight, chattering flocks hurtle with rush of wings over rainforests, like lorikeets. In sustained flight, e.g. to offshore islands, flocks rise and fall, like Common Starlings. In ne. Q roosts in street trees, overhead wires; raids fruit.