Greater Blue-eared Starling

This is definitely a Cape Glossy Starling. The Greater Blue-eared Starling has a dark ear-patch behind the eye which this bird clearly does not have and also it has a deep Royal blue belly extending down the legs which again this bird does not have.

wow,, so shining,

Fabulous spotting!

Hi Imdang, I think i'll keep an eye out for the bird and see if i can get another shot from a different angle to confirm.

Thanks, Mari, this is a tricky one.

In identifying my spotting, I read somewhere that the blue does not extend to the legs in the Cape starlings whereas they do in the blue-eared. Also, the eyes of the Cape are more orange than yellow and the Cape starlings are not as irridescent as the Blue.

A difficult one for you as your spotting seems to have charateristics of both!

I've gone for the suggestion by Daniele. Also looking at the post from lmdang, they look very similar.
http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/107...

I go along with Daniele, I believe I can see a dark eye mask and royal blue ventrally

Thanks guys, but it seems I'll have to toss a coin here. I'll wait for some more comments and then go with the majority.

This is a hard one as both are possible for the location...... to follow up on the discussion started by Liam and Johan I'd add that:
- the ear patch doesn't seem to be uniformly green as is the case with the Cape glossy starling, but broader and blue (it would be nice to see a lightened up image)
- I can't seen red on the shoulder
- I can see blue on the flanks
Hence my suggestion... a beautiful bird in any case!

Nice shot. I agree with Liam.

I think Cape Glossy Starling (Lamprotornis nitens) is more likely.