Lilac-breasted Roller

Coracias caudatus

National bird of Kenya. Males roll and dive violently mid-flight to show off eight colors to watching females below.

Population: Not numerically quantified by IUCN/BirdLife; population described qualitatively as abundant/common/frequent with a stable trend and no evidence of significant decline
Habitat: Open savanna with scattered trees and shrubs, riverine vegetation, light/tropical forest edge, grassland, shrubland, and agricultural land, favoring elevated perches for hunting; occurs from sea level up to 2,000-3,000 m
Fun fact: Often called the unofficial national bird of Kenya, the Lilac-breasted Roller performs a dramatic aerial courtship display — climbing to height and then plummeting in a rolling, side-to-side dive while calling loudly, the source of the "roller" name; note this species is NOT Botswana's national bird (that is officially the Kori Bustard).
Range: Eastern and southern sub-Saharan Africa, from Eritrea/Horn of Africa through East Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) south to Angola, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and northeastern South Africa; extremely large range (~11.8 million sq km); vagrants recorded in the Middle East (e.g., Oman, Yemen)
Diet: Carnivorous, sit-and-wait hunter from perches: ground-dwelling arthropods (grasshoppers, beetles, spiders, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes), snails, and small vertebrates such as lizards, chameleons, small snakes, and occasionally small birds and rodents
Size: 0.37 m
Wingspan: 0.54 m
Lifespan: 10 years

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