Coleto facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Coleto
Conservation status
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Genus:	Sarcops
Species:	calvus
Synonyms
Gracula calva Linnaeus, 1766

The coleto (Sarcops calvus) is a starling species (family Sturnidae) in the monotypic genus Sarcops. It is endemic to the Philippines. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forest, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forest. In Filipino and Tagalog, this bird is known as kuling or koleto, while in Central Visayas, it is commonly known as the sal-ing.

A captive coleto

In 1760 the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson included a description of the coleto in his Ornithologie based on a specimen collected in the Philippines. He used the French name Le merle chauve des Philippines and the Latin Mname "erula Calva Philippensis. Although Brisson coined Latin names, these do not conform to the binomial system and are not recogniszd by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. WI 1766 , when the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus updated his Systema Naturae for the twelfth edition, he added 240 species that had been previously described by Brisson. One of these was the coleto. Linnaeus included a brief description, coined the binomial name Gracula calva and cited Brisson's work. The specific name is from Latin calvus "bald" or "without hair". This species is now the only member of the genus Sarcops that was introduced by the English ornithologist Arthur Walden in 1875. The name combines the Ancient Greek words sarx, sarkos "flesh" and ōps, ōpos "face" or "complexion".

Three subspecies are recognised:

• S. c. calvus (Linnaeus, 1766) – north Philippines
• S. c. melanonotus (Ogilvie-Grant, 1906) – central and south Philippines
• S. c. lowii (Sharpe, 1877) – Sulu Archipelago (southwest Philippines)

Breeding information

The Coleto was a recently discovered host of the brood parasitic Asian Koel (Eudynamys scolopaceus) in the Philippines.