COVER STORY: SPECIES PROFILE
ATREST, rollers are blue-headed, crow-sized birds with subtly colourful plumage. But when they take flight with their wings open and tail spread, they reveal a kaleidoscope of colour in shades of blue and mauve. This led one 19th-century naturalist to describe a European roller (Coracias garrulus) when it flew into the sunshine as resembling a moving rainbow.
In roller species, the sexes are alike and, with seasonal plumage change being minimal, these are impressive birds. The European roller's specific name – shared by the European jay – means “excessive chatter” and is very appropriate. In most roller species the voice is strident and varied, both at rest and on the wing. (It is more limited in the broad-billed species.) Some calls resembling those of the jackdaw. The male
