February/March. 2025 Kenya. I’m setting aside the “My Bird of the Day’ principle for a moment and stretching the timelines a bit to highlight a bird family that I can sometimes hardly believe, the Rollers. They are gaudy, tropical, blue birds with large heads, broad shoulders, and stout bills, and with a sit-and-wait-for-large-insects-to-show-up approach to feeding. We saw many on our recent trip to Kenya, they were widespread, though not everywhere and seemed to prefer open savanna habitats, with plenty of trees and shrubs and other convenient perches. An odd name maybe but Rollers are named for their acrobatic and tumbling display flights, presumably when defining breeding territory or in courtship. I’ve always been mesmerized by their striking colours, usually an overall cerulean blue (subject to my artist friends’ agreement) with darker patches of intense pure blue and chestnut or rufous brown.
Worldwide there are thirteen Roller species, we saw three in Kenya: European Roller, Lilac-breasted Roller and Purple Roller.
The commonest was this above, the European Roller. It winters in sub-Saharan Africa but returns to Southern Europe and Central Eurasia to breed. My first encounter with it was in poring over bird books as a child, I was certain I’d never see one for real. But when I finally did, in Kyrgyzstan in 2018, it made me tingle all over. What a bird.
The Lilac-breasted Roller (above) was plentiful but less common on our trip but that may just have been a matter of us not being in the right places. It is a purely African bird and somewhat migratory within the southern and eastern half of the continent.
This Rufous-crowned or Purple Roller was new to me and I would have missed it if our guide hadn’t assured us that it was a roller. It fits the general size and impression but missed out on the colour treatment. But it was still a roller and I was happy to make its acquaintance.
I also saw and photographed these, a Broad-billed Roller, and an Indian Roller some years ago in Uganda and Oman respectively.
