🐦☆¹³•³ ▪︎ ² Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis) in Roller Family (Coraciidae)

¤ (Coracias benghalensis) Indian Roller in Roller Family (Coraciidae) distributed from Iraq & United Arab Emirates through Indian subcontinent, including Sri Lanka.

State bird of Indian states of Odisha, Telangana & Karnataka.

Indian roller is associated with Hindu legends & said to be sacred to Vishnu. Neelkanth नीलकंठ meaning 'blue throat', a name associated with deity Shiva due to a legend that he drank Halahala poison emerging from Samudra Manthana to save world but stopped it from going past his throat, turning it blue.

Indian Roller is a bulky & broad-winged bird with a large head & short neck & legs. It has a body length of 30-34 cm with a wingspan of 65-74 cm & weighs 166-176 g.

Bare skin around eyes is dull Orange, legs & feet are Yellow-Brown. Bill is tinged with Brown at base. Iris is Grey-Brown.

Plumage on forehead, chin & lores are Pinkish buff, ear coverts are darker Red-Brown with pale Cream or Pinkish streaks, while throat is a dull Wine-Red with narrow Cream streaks.

Crown & nape are a darker dull turquoise. Back & rump are a bright turquoise & belly is pale Blue.

Tail coverts are dark Purple-Blue with Turquoise tips. Middle 2 tail feathers are Greyish Blue-Olive with Black shafts, while surrounding tail feathers are an intense Purple-Blue with a broad pale blue band & Greenish tinge towards tips.

Flight feathers on wings have same Purple-Blue colour of those on tail, with a similar pale Blue band across most distal 5 or 6 primaries. Underwing coverts & axillary feathers are pale Blue, while upperwing coverts are a dull Green-Blue. Primary coverts are pale Blue with Olive or Purple-blue tips & lesser coverts are Purple-Blue along leading edge of wing. Colours look dull when bird is perched but become vibrant in flight.

2 Subspecies
☆ (Coracias benghalensis benghalensis)
☆ (Coracias benghalensis indicus)

Blue colours of flight feathers are structural & are formed by microstructures in barbs that produce blue through scattering, which C.V. Raman noted in 1930s as being more complex than can be explained by Tyndall effect. 😎

Adult Males & Females are similar in appearance & there are no seasonal changes. Juvenile birds are duller, paler & browner in colour, with a dull green crown & dull green-blue belly tinged with buff. Bill is brown with a yellowish base rather than black.

At a distance species can be mistaken for European roller which is a migrant through parts of Indian roller's range.

European Roller has a longer neck & tail in flight as well as black primaries & an all-blue head.

Indochinese Roller is darker, larger & has a purplish brown & unstreaked face & breast & blue-green forehead. Underwing coverts are a deeper shade of blue. Its call is higher-pitched & has a more nasal sound.
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▪︎ Genus Coracias (9)
¤ (Coracias abyssinicus) Abyssinian Roller
¤ (Coracias affinis) Indochinese Roller
¤ (Coracias benghalensis) Indian Roller
¤ (Coracias caudatus) Lilac-breasted Roller
¤ (Coracias cyanogaster) Blue-bellied Roller
¤ (Coracias garrulus) European Roller
¤ (Coracias naevius) Rufous-crowned Roller, Purple Roller
¤ (Coracias spatulatus) Raquet-tailed Roller, Racquet-tailed Roller, Racket-tailed Roller
¤ (Coracias temminckii) Sulawesi Roller, Purple-winged Roller
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Bill is robust & is shorter yet broader in Genus Eurystomus, sometimes known as 'broad-billed rollers'. Broad-billed rollers have brightly coloured bills, whereas those of Coracias (or True) rollers are Black. Other differences between two Genera are in wing length; more aerial Eurystomus rollers have longer wings (& shorter feet still) than Coracias rollers, this reflects differences in their foraging ecology.

Their calls are 'repeated short, gruff caws'.

Are found in warmer parts of Old World. Africa has most species & is believed to be where family originated. This is supported by fact that related Ground Rollers are found on Madagascar. European Roller is completely migratory, breeding in Europe & wintering in Africa & Dollarbird also leaves much of its breeding range in winter. Other species are sedentary or short-range migrants. These are birds of open habitats with trees or other elevated perches from which to hunt.

Are noisy & aggressive when defending their nesting territories, which they patrol while displaying their striking plumage. Intruders are attacked with intimidating rolling dives. They are monogamous & nest in an unlined hole in a tree or in masonry.

Coracias rollers are watch-and-wait hunters. They sit in a tree or on a post before descending on their prey & carrying it back to a perch in the beak before dismembering it.

Eurystomus rollers hunt on wing, swooping on flying beetles, crickets & other insects which are crushed by their broad deep beaks & eaten on wing. Azure roller & dollarbird will hunt huge swarms of termites & flying ants which appear after thunderstorms. Tens or hundreds of these rollers may be attracted to large swarms.
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