ANATOMY OF BIRDS
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
MIGRATIONS OF BIRDS
CLASSIFICATION OF BIRDS
LIZARD-TAILED BIRD
AMERICAN TOOTHED-BIRDS
THE OSTRICHES
THE RHEAS
EMEUS AND CASSOWARIES
THE TINAMOUS
THE KIWIS
THE PENGUINS
LOONS AND GREBES
ALBATROSSES & PETRELS
STORK-LIKE BIRDS
GOOSE-LIKE BIRDS
FALCON-LIKE BIRDS
FOWL-LIKE BIRDS
CRANE-LIKE BIRDS
PLOVER-LIKE BIRDS
CUCKOO-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
SPARROW-LIKE BIRDS
Birds and Birding's Guide to:
Watching THE ROLLER-LIKE BIRDS
THE ROLLERS AND THEIR ALLIES
THE ROLLERS
True Rollers
The typical and largest genus of true Rollers (Coracias) comprises some sixteen species of splendid birds, spread mainly over Africa, but extending also through central and southern Europe, Asia Minor, the Indian peninsula, and the Burmese countries to Celebes. They have a long, rather compressed bill with a wide gape, rather long, broad wings, and a relatively short tarsus.
They are shy, wild birds, distinctly arboreal in their habits, frequenting woods, groves, gardens, and occasionally inhabited places, and are strong and swift in flight. They feed largely on insects, most of which they capture on the wing, occasionally, however, descending to the ground for them. Their nests are made in hollow trees, overhanging banks, old ruins, or sometimes in inhabited houses, and their eggs are pure white and glossy.
There is a group of small species in which the outer tail-feathers are greatly elongated, and sometimes with racket-shaped tips. One of the long-tailed species is the Abyssinian Roller (C. abyssiniais), a bird about seventeen inches in length which inhabits Abyssinia and the Soudan.
The crown, nape, sides of the head, throat, and under parts generally are a greenish turquoise-blue, darker on the crown and paler on the abdomen; the back and shoulders are reddish cinnamon, while the rump and upper tail-coverts are a rich ultramarine-blue, as are the smaller wing-coverts, the other coverts and quills being greenish blue and ultramarine-blue, respectively; the outer tail-feathers extend for six inches beyond the others. South of the equator the Long-tailed Roller (C. caudahis) takes the place of the other, while the Racket-tailed Roller (C. spatulatus) inhabits East and Southeast Africa.
previous bird species next bird species
Footer
Footer