PHOTO: KAMOL DAS

Perched face-to-face on a sunlit branch in Rangamati’s Kaptai upazila, two Asian glossy starlings are locked in what feels like an intimate conversation. Native across South and Southeast Asia, including Bangladesh, these highly adaptable birds thrive in forests, mangroves and even busy urban spaces. Their diet is delightfully varied -- soft fruits like figs, mango and papaya, alongside insects they pick deftly from foliage. Social and often noisy, they move in flocks, sometimes mimicking sounds from their surroundings. Classified as Least Concern by the IUCN, they remain widespread, though local pressures such as habitat change and conflict with fruit growers threaten their populations.