Blue-Breasted Bee-Eater

I spent an afternoon outside Entebbe, near Lake Victoria, in Uganda, birding with a guide near the Nkima Forest Lodge and the Mabamba Swamp. One of the beautiful birds we saw was the blue-breasted bee-eater, one of two new bee-eaters I saw on this trip. 

It has a black eye stripe, a blue stripe over the black eye stripe, an orange-red iris, a white cheek, and a bright yellow throat. It has a chest band with a purple-blue gorget above chestnut, a green crown, green upperparts and light greenish-yellow upperparts. Its primary wings are washed with rufous, the secondaries are green with black tips. The outer rectrices are washed with rufous and the center feathers are green. The tail has a shallow v-shape and does not have tail-streamers which other members of the family have. 

It has three subspecies, Merops variegatus variegatus, M. v. Loringi and M. v. bangweoloensis. I don't find any descriptions of or the locations of the subspecies. Birds of the world gives illustrations for variegatus and bangweoloensis. 

Blue-breasted bee-eater (variegatus) from Birds of the World.

Blue-breasted bee-eater (bangweoloensis) from Birds of the World. The difference appears to be the lack of the purple blue gorget in bangweoloensis. 

It is found in central Africa in Angola, Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria and Cameroon. 

Range of the blue-breasted bee-eater from Birds of the World. Based on the map, I saw it near its far eastern limit on the western shore of Lake Victoria. 

It usually inhabits open wet habitats, but has been recorded in savanna grass lands, reedy lake shores, marshes, grassy hillsides and papyrus beds.