Greater Blue-eared Starling (Lamprotornis chalybaeus) [XC525286]
by Daniel Danckwerts from Lower Sabie Restcamp, Kruger NP, Mpumalanga, South Africa (alarm call)
Greater Blue-eared Starling (Lamprotornis chalybaeus) [XC880501]
by Marc Anderson from Manyeleti Game Reserve, South Africa (call)
Subspecies
Subspecies nordmanni sometimes treated as a synonym of sycobius.
Proposed subspecies hartlaubi (described from Senegal), formerly used for northern populations (east to Sudan), is regarded as synonymous with nominate.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
chalybaeus Ehrenberg, 1828 - Southern Mauritania, Senegambia, southern Mali, Burkina Faso, southern Niger and northern Nigeria east to central Sudan; dry-season visitor to northern Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin.
cyaniventris Blyth, 1855 - Eritrea, Ethiopia, north-western Somalia, northern Uganda, eastern DRCongo and northern Kenya.
sycobius (Hartlaub, 1859) - South-western Uganda, southern Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, south-eastern DRCongo, northern and eastern Zambia, Malawi and western Mozambique.
nordmanni (Hartert & Neumann, 1914) - Southern Angola and northern Namibia east to northern and eastern Botswana, southern Zambia, Zimbabwe, north-eastern South Africa and southern Mozambique.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet