The Greater blue-eared glossy starling is actually a fairly large starling (21-24 cm), but with a relatively short tail. It is distributed in a belt right across Africa, from Senegal to the west, to Ethiopia to the east, and in a field south from Ethiopia, down to northern Namibia and north-eastern South Africa. The "blue ear" that gave the species its name in English is not always discernible, but you can actually discerned it in this picture, a darker patch, slightly to the right, below the brilliant orange eye. This species subsists on a combination of fruits and insects, and sometimes forages from the backs of cattle. It builds its nest in tree cavities or old woodpecker nests, but it also happens that it settles inside the large stick nests of birds like the Sacred ibis.