White-cheeked Starling

The white-cheeked starling is 24 centimetres long. The adult male is mainly dark grey-brown with a paler belly and a whitish band across the rump. The head is blackish with whitish cheeks and forehead, and there is a white border to the tail and white markings on the secondaries. The legs are pale orange and the bill is orange with a black tip. Adult females are similar but paler and duller. The juvenile is brown with pale cheeks and rump and no black tip to the bill. The call is a loud, monotonous series of harsh, creaking notes. (Wikipedia, general species account)

Native to eastern Asia, it is a common and well-known bird across much of its range. It breeds in central and north-east China, Korea, Japan and south-east Siberia, and birds from colder regions migrate south in winter to southern and eastern China, South Korea, southern Japan, Taiwan and northern Vietnam. It inhabits woodland, farmland and open country and has adapted to urban parks and gardens, being most common in lowlands, usually below 700 metres in Japan. (Wikipedia, general species account)