Greater Blue-Eared Starling

In Kidepo Valley NP in northeastern Uganda we stayed in the Savannah Lodge just outside the park.  After we passed through the Kalokudo Gate into the park we traveled down a dirt road that was full of starlings on the road in front of our vehicle. Many of those starlings were greater blue-eared starlings, another crazily colored bird, not as glossified as the Ruppell's starling, my last post, but one with a greater palate of green. It has a blue-green forehead, crown, nape and upperparts; a blue-sheen on the uppertail coverts which also have faint dark spots; blackish lores; glossy blue ear coverts which form a distinctive patch; blue-green wings; dark spots on the tips of the greater and median coverts; and the tail is more blue than the rest of the dorsal plumage. The chin, throat, breast and undertail coverts are a glossy blue-green and the flanks, belly and thighs are blue with a violet sheen. The iris ranges from white and yellow to orange or red. My photos are not as clear and crisp as I would like, but they were quite far in front of our vehicle and I couldn't get a good close shot. There was another species of starling with it that I was never able to get even a semi-decent photo of. 

Illustration from Birds of the World. 

I saw ssp. cyaniventris which is found in northern Uganda, northern Kenya, adjacent southeastern South Sudan, eastern DRC, Eritrea, Ethiopia and northwestern Somalia. 

Range from Birds of the World.