From Opus

Photo by juninho
Location: Ulu, Kenya

Lamprotornis chloropterus

Includes: Southern Blue-eared Glossy-Starling or Miombo Blue-eared Starling

[edit] Identification

Length 18-20 cm. A fairly small glossy starling with a narrow blue ear-patch and magenta belly and flanks.

[edit] Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa.

[edit] Taxonomy

Lamprotornis chloropterus has two subspecies:¹

• L. c. chloropterus

• Senegal to southern Sudan, western Eritrea, western Ethiopia, northern Uganda and western Kenya

• L. c. elisabeth

• Miombo woodlands of south-eastern Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, northern Mozambique and Zimbabwe
• Some authorities^2,3,4 consider this taxon to be a separate species, the Miombo Blue-eared Starling (or Southern Blue-eared Glossy-Starling), Lamprotornis elisabeth.

[edit] Habitat

Woodland and wooded savanna.

[edit] Behaviour

Diet consists of fruit, seeds, nectar and insects (including beetles, termites, grasshoppers).

[edit] References

1. Clements, JF. 2008. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2008. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019. Spreadsheet available at http://www.birds.cornell.edu/clementschecklist.
2. Gill, F and M Wright. 2008. Birds of the World: Recommended English Names. Princeton University Press, Princeton NJ, USA. 2006. ISBN 9780691128276. Update (2008) downloaded from http://worldbirdnames.org/names.html.
3. Hockey, PAR, WRJ Dean, and PG Ryan, eds. 2005. Roberts' Birds of Southern Africa. 7th ed. Cape Town: John Voelcker Bird Book Fund. ISBN 978-0620340533
4. Sinclair, I and P Ryan. 2003. Birds of Africa South of the Sahara. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0691118154

• List of references

[edit] External Links