The cuckoo-roller or courol (''Leptosomus discolor'')del Hoyo, J. Elliott, A. & Sargatal, J. (2001) is the only bird in the family Leptosomidae , which was previously often placed in the order

Coraciiformes The Coraciiformes are a group of usually colourful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base) ...

but is now placed in its own order Leptosomiformes. The cuckoo-roller is at the root of a group that contains the

Trogoniformes The trogons and quetzals are birds in the order Trogoniformes which contains only one family, the Trogonidae. The family Trogonidae contains 46 species in seven genera. The fossil record of the trogons dates back 49 million years to the Earl ...

Bucerotiformes Bucerotiformes is an order of birds that contains the hornbills, ground hornbills, hoopoes and wood hoopoes. These birds were previously classified as members of Coraciiformes. The clade is distributed in Africa, Asia, Europe and Melanesia. ...

Piciformes Nine families of largely arboreal birds make up the order Piciformes , the best-known of them being the Picidae, which includes the woodpeckers and close relatives. The Piciformes contain about 71 living genera with a little over 450 species, of ...

, and

. Despite its name, the Cuckoo-roller does not share close evolutionary origins with

cuckoo Cuckoos are birds in the Cuculidae family, the sole taxon in the order Cuculiformes . The cuckoo family includes the common or European cuckoo, roadrunners, koels, malkohas, couas, coucals and anis. The coucals and anis are sometimes separ ...

or rollers at all. It is a medium-large bird, inhabiting forests and woodlands in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

and the

Comoro Islands The Comoro Islands or Comoros (Shikomori ''Komori''; ar, جزر القمر , ''Juzur al-qamar''; french: Les Comores) form an archipelago of volcanic islands situated off the southeastern coast of Africa, to the east of Mozambique and northwes ...

. Three subspecies are described: the nominate ''L. d. discolor'' is found in Madagascar and Mayotte Island, ''L. d. intermedius'' on

Anjouan Anjouan (; also known as Ndzuwani or Nzwani, and historically as Johanna or Hinzuan) is an autonomous high island in the Indian Ocean that forms part of the Union of the Comoros. Its chief town is Mutsamudu and, , its population is around 277,500. ...

, and ''L. d. gracilis'' of Grand Comoro. Based on its smaller size, differences in the plumage, and minor difference in the voice, the last of these is sometimes considered a separate species, the Comoro cuckoo-roller (''L. gracilis'').

Description

The cuckoo-roller has a total length of ; the nominate subspecies is the largest, and ''L. d. gracilis'' the smallest. Unlike the true rollers and

ground roller The ground rollers are a small family of bird migration, non-migratory near-passerine birds restricted to Madagascar. They are related to the kingfishers, bee-eaters and Coraciidae, rollers. They most resemble the latter group, and are sometime ...

s, where the sexes have identical appearance, the cuckoo-roller is sexually dichromatic. Males have a mostly velvety grey chest and head, changing gradually to white on the remaining underparts (the demarcation between grey and white is stronger in ''L. d. gracilis''). The back, tail, and wing-coverts are dark iridescent green with a purplish tinge (especially on the wing-coverts), and the crown and eye-stripe are black. Females are mostly brown, with strongly dark-spotted pale underparts (less spotting in ''L. d. gracilis''). Juveniles are generally reported as resembling a dull female, but at least juveniles of ''L. d. gracilis'' are sexually dimorphic, and this also possibly applies to the other subspecies. The

bill Bill(s) may refer to: Common meanings * Banknote, paper cash (especially in the United States) * Bill (law), a proposed law put before a legislature * Invoice, commercial document issued by a seller to a buyer * Bill, a bird or animal's beak Plac ...

is stout and the eyes are set far back in the face. The legs and feet are small, and the feet have an unusual structure which has confused many ornithologists, but is now thought to be zygodactylous (two toes forwards, two toes backwards).

Distribution and habitat

The cuckoo-roller occupies a wide variety of habitats, including altered areas. They inhabit forest, including rainforest, litoral forest, deciduous forest, spiny bush-forest, and tree plantations. In the Comoros, the species is found on all the major islands, particularly in forested zones. It can be found from near sea level up to 2000 m.

Behaviour and ecology

The diet of the cuckoo-roller is not well known, but a 1931 expedition found that chameleons and

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three ...

s, particularly locusts and caterpillars, are important food items. Stomachs have often been found to be lined with caterpillar hairs, and other prey taken include grasshoppers,

cicada The cicadas () are a superfamily, the Cicadoidea, of insects in the order Hemiptera (true bugs). They are in the suborder Auchenorrhyncha, along with smaller jumping bugs such as leafhoppers and froghoppers. The superfamily is divided into tw ...

s, stick insects, and geckos. The principal foraging technique is to perch motionless, watching for prey, then to make a quick sally towards the prey when observed. They also hunt from the air. Prey is caught in the large bill and killed by beating it against a branch. Very few studies have investigated the breeding habits of the cuckoo-roller. It has been described in the past as a

polygamous Crimes Polygamy (from Late Greek (') "state of marriage to many spouses") is the practice of marrying multiple spouses. When a man is married to more than one wife at the same time, sociologists call this polygyny. When a woman is marrie ...

breeder, but no evidence for this is available. The

nest A nest is a structure built for certain animals to hold eggs or young. Although nests are most closely associated with birds, members of all classes of vertebrates and some invertebrates construct nests. They may be composed of organic materi ...

is located in tall trees, off the ground, in natural cavities. No lining is placed inside the cavity; the white eggs are laid directly on the bottom. The usual clutch size is around four eggs. Incubation is performed by the female only, while the male feeds her. The incubation period is about 20 days, after which fluffy chicks are born. Chicks remain in the nest for 30 days before

fledging Fledging is the stage in a flying animal's life between hatching or birth and becoming capable of flight. This term is most frequently applied to birds, but is also used for bats. For altricial birds, those that spend more time in vulnerable c ...

Status and conservation

The species is not generally hunted and has proven resistant to habitat change that has threatened other native birds. It is assessed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

by the IUCN. The distribution of the cuckoo-roller is vast, and populations in Madagascar persist in small forest fragments. Areas with abundant populations include broad expanses of forest associated with reserves such as Zahamena, Andringitra, Andohahela, and Marojejy.

Relations with humans

The cuckoo-roller is very tame, and it is generally not disturbed by the inhabitants of Madagascar, many of whom have legends and myths about the species. It is often considered a good omen, as the harbinger of clear weather and (because it is often seen in pairs) as associated with couples and love.

References

External links

Cuckoo-roller videos, photos & sounds
on the Internet Bird Collection {{Taxonbar, from=Q71118 Coraciiformes Birds of the Comoros Birds of Madagascar Birds of Mayotte Birds described in 1783