Bold and Beautiful: Lilac-breasted Roller in Field and Aviary

Abstract

I have two lasting impressions from my birding travels through parts of East Africa. The first is of a notable abundance of diurnal birds of prey, especially larger species such as eagles and vultures, and the second is of a prevalence of coraciids. Being particularly interested in coraciiform species probably predisposed me to noting the presence of these birds, but I did find them to be unexpectedly plentiful, and perhaps no species epitomized this prevalence more than the ubiquitous Lilac-breasted Roller Coracias caudata.

Adults of both sexes exhibit the same striking plumage coloration, which features dark upperparts merging from glossy olive-green on the crown and nape to olive-brown variably tinged bluish on the upper back, scapulars and tertials, while the lower back and rump are rich cobalt blue, becoming greenish-blue on the upper tail-coverts. The forehead, chin and sides of forecrown are white, the cheeks and ear-coverts lilac-rufous, and the throat to breast lilac shaft-streaked with white, becoming dull mauve-pink on the lower breast and merging into greenish-blue on the lower underparts. Rich cobalt-blue extends from the bend of the wing to the lesser wing-coverts, becoming bluish-green on the median to secondary coverts, while the flight feathers are azure-blue proximally and deep purple-blue distally. A prominent feature is the elongated, attenuated tips to outermost feathers of the blue tail. The bill is black and the iris is dark brown. Juveniles are markedly duller, especially on the throat and breast, which are cinnabar-brown shaftstreaked with buff-white and with faint lilac margins to some feathers, and there are no elongated, attenuated tips to the outermost tail-feathers.

Two well-differentiated subspecies occur in the extensive range through much of eastern and southern Africa. The more familiar C. c. caudata is resident in the south, from Angola, southern Congo and Uganda, and central Kenya south to northern regions of the Republic of South Africa. Differing by having only the throat lilac, heavily shaft-streaked with white, and the breast azure-blue, migratory C. c. lorti is confined to north-eastern Africa, where breeding has been recorded in eastern Ethiopia and north-western Somalia to north-eastern Kenya, with wintering birds coming south to southeastern Kenya.

In northernmost parts of the range, this species is uncommon, but elsewhere it is plentiful in open country, including farmlands, and I found it to be the roller most familiar to local people. It has a particularly broad habitat tolerance, being equally at home in dry open woodlands, grasslands with scattered trees, subdesert scrublands, light forest, riparian woodlands, gardens or cultivated fields, and even in treeless grasslands, provided that fences or telegraph wires are availahle for perching. In the south, it tends to avoid more wooded areas, where it is replaced by the Racket-tailed Roller Coracias spatulata. In the Nchalo district, southernmost Malawi, I found it to he particularly abundant, and one of the most conspicuous birds in all open habitats, including treeless sugarcane plantations, where roadside powerlines were utilized for perching.

Lilac-breasted Rollers are bold, garrulous birds, and it is virtually impossible to overlook their presence. Typically, they are met with as individuals perched on topmost hranches of trees or at regular intervals along roadside fences and telegraph wires, their bright plumage coloration and elongated outermost tail-feathers aiding identification. A bird may have a favored vantage perch, on which it can be seen sitting day after day for weeks on end. Though not infrequently encountered in pairs or more rarely in small groups, tllese rollers seem to prefer perching solitarily, and even apparently paired birds will sit well apart on a powerline or on topmost branches of adjoining trees, rather than in the same tree; this spacing probably increases the hunting opportunities for each individual.

Quarrelsome and decidedly territorial, these rollers often are involved in aggressive interactions. With strident calling, a bird will swoop down to chase off any approaching intruder, and at times physical contact will occur. With outspread tails uplifted and crests raised intermittently, two birds, presumed to be rival males, were seen calling loudly at each other from perches atop a bush. One would thrust forward at the other, and then facing each other they would fly upward with beating wings, one clawing at the other. Should one obtain a hold, both would fall to the ground and struggle for a while before one would break free and fly up some 10 m into the air, rolling over once or twice, and then sail down to the perch, where he would give his cry, Lilac-breasted Rollers are attracted to fires and can be seen in mixed assemblages of birds that gather immediately in front of or behind the advancing flames, where fleeing or injured insects and small reptiles or mammals are easy prey. At other times, they spend much of the day sitting on a vantage perch and scanning the ground below for the appearance of prey. As soon as prey is sighted, the roller swoops down to the ground, grasps the insect or reptile in its hill, and either consumes the catch there or brings it hack to he struck repeatedly against the perch before being swallowed.

Food comprises small arthropods and vertebrates, with favored prey being large grasshoppers, locusts, crickets, beetles, moths and their larvae, including...

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References

Collard, W. and D. Collard, 1969. Breeding the Lilac-breasted Roller (Coractas caudata), Avicult. Mag., 75 : 95-96.

Forshaw, J. M. and W, T. Cooper, 1993. Kingfishers and Related Birds: Leptosomatidae, Coraciidae. Upupidae, Phoeniculidae, Sydney Lansdowne Editions.

Fry, C. H.. K. Fry and A Harris, 1992. Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers. London : Christopher Helm.

Simmons, J., 1979. Breeding the Lilac-breasted Roller Coracias caudata at the Cotswold Wildlife Park, Avicult. Mag., 85: 61-62. ~