This starling occurs in the northern Lesser Sunda Islands of Indonesia. A range-wide field survey reported records in remote cultivated areas and along forest edges.
The survey paper cites the taxonomic treatment that distinguishes it by a dark-green rather than dark-blue gloss, a wattle extending as a double line up the central hindcrown, and raised paired bumps on the front of the crown.
Most survey encounters were in remote cultivated areas, forest borders or degraded forest. Residents also reported birds feeding at fruiting trees in villages.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.