Birds
Lilac-breasted Roller
Coracias caudatus · also called lilac-breasted roller
The lilac-breasted roller is often called the most colourful bird in Africa, and it makes a strong case: a single bird carries lilac, turquoise, deep blue, green, and rufous all at once. It sits on an exposed perch scanning the ground for insects and lizards, and it takes its name from the male’s wild, tumbling courtship dive.
Overview
Lilac-breasted rollers live across eastern and southern Africa, in savanna, open woodland, and farmland with scattered trees. They are about 36–38 cm long including two fine tail streamers, with a lilac throat and breast, turquoise belly, rufous back, and bright blue wings. Males and females look alike.
Perch and pounce
The roller hunts by sitting on a prominent bare perch — a dead branch, fence post, wire, or termite mound — and scanning the ground, then dropping steeply onto grasshoppers, beetles, scorpions, and small lizards. It beats larger prey against the perch and swallows it whole. Rollers often hunt at the edges of grass fires, catching animals flushed by the flames.
The roll
In courtship and territorial flights the male climbs steeply, then dives while rocking rapidly from side to side, calling harshly. This tumbling roll is what gives the whole roller family its name.
Nesting
Pairs nest in tree holes and old woodpecker cavities, defending them fiercely and dive-bombing hawks and eagles that come too close.
Status
The lilac-breasted roller is Least Concern, common and widespread. Its colours have made it a popular emblem, and it is often called the national bird of Kenya and Botswana, though neither country has formally designated it.
Lilac-breasted Roller: common questions
Why is it called a roller?
The name comes from a flight display rather than from anything about how the bird normally moves. Male rollers perform a courtship and territorial flight in which they climb, then plunge downward while rocking and twisting from side to side in a fast rolling motion, sometimes almost turning over, all while calling loudly and harshly. The lilac-breasted roller and its relatives across Africa, Europe, and Asia all share some version of this tumbling roll, and early naturalists named the family for it. The lilac-breasted part simply describes the striking pinkish-purple colour of the throat and chest.
How many colours does a lilac-breasted roller have?
A lot, which is why it is such a photographer's favourite. On a single bird you can typically see a greenish-blue crown and nape, a lilac to pinkish-purple throat and breast, a pale turquoise belly and undertail, warm reddish-brown on the back and shoulders, bright pale blue on the wing coverts, deep violet-blue on the flight feathers, and blackish wingtips, along with a black bill and, in adults, two fine blackish tail streamers extending past the rest of the tail. Males and females look essentially the same. In flight the wing pattern of contrasting light and dark blue is especially eye-catching.
How does the lilac-breasted roller catch its food?
It is a sit-and-wait predator of open ground. The bird takes up a conspicuous position on an exposed perch with a clear view, such as the top of a dead branch, a fence post, a power line, or a termite mound, and watches the ground below. When it spots a grasshopper, beetle, scorpion, or small lizard, it swoops down in a fast glide, seizes the prey in its bill, and usually carries it back to a perch, where it beats larger or dangerous items against the wood to subdue them before swallowing. It rarely chases prey in the air and rarely forages by walking on the ground.
Are lilac-breasted rollers aggressive?
Toward rivals and potential nest predators, yes, disproportionately so for their size. Pairs hold territories and will chase off other rollers, and they are known for mobbing and dive-bombing much larger birds, including hawks, eagles, and hornbills, that come near an active nest. During the breeding season the rolling display flights double as a warning to neighbours. Toward people they are usually wary but not hostile, and their habit of perching in the open on roadside wires and posts makes them one of the most frequently seen and photographed birds on an African safari.