Species profile
About the lilac-breasted roller
Few birds are as reliably beautiful as the lilac-breasted roller: a lilac throat and breast, turquoise crown and belly, chestnut back and brilliant cobalt-and-navy wings that only reveal their full colour in flight. It perches conspicuously on bare branches and telephone wires, which is why it appears in more safari photographs than almost any other species.
The name comes from the courtship flight — a steep climb followed by a tumbling, rolling dive accompanied by harsh calls. Rollers hunt by dropping onto insects and small reptiles on the ground below the perch.
Life in the wild
Behavior & relationships
Behavior
A perch-and-pounce hunter. Watches from an exposed branch, drops onto prey, and returns to the same perch to beat it before swallowing.
Social life
Monogamous territorial pairs that defend a nesting hole vigorously, mobbing raptors and even eagles that come too near.
What makes it remarkable
Special features
Eight distinct colours in the adult plumage, and the tumbling "rolling" display flight that names the family.
