The racket-tailed roller (''Coracias spatulatus'') is a species of

bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweig ...

in the family

Coraciidae Coraciidae is a family of Old World birds, which is known as rollers because of the aerial acrobatics some of these birds perform during courtship or territorial flights. Rollers resemble crows in size and build, and share the colourful appearan ...

. It is found in southern Africa from Angola, south-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and southern Tanzania to northern Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique.

Taxonomy and systematics

The racket-tailed roller was formally described in 1880 by the naturalist

Roland Trimen Roland Trimen FRS (29 October 1840 in London – 25 July 1916 in London) was a British-South African naturalist, best known for ''South African Butterflies'' (1887–89), a collaborative work with Colonel James Henry Bowker. He was among ...

under its current

binomial name In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''Coracias spatulatus'' from a specimen collected near the

Zambezi River The Zambezi River (also spelled Zambeze and Zambesi) is the fourth-longest river in Africa, the longest east-flowing river in Africa and the largest flowing into the Indian Ocean from Africa. Its drainage basin covers , slightly less than hal ...

in southern Africa. The specific epithet ''spatulatus'' is Modern Latin meaning "spatulate" or "spoon-shaped". The species is

monotypic In biology, a monotypic taxon is a taxonomic group (taxon) that contains only one immediately subordinate taxon. A monotypic species is one that does not include subspecies or smaller, infraspecific taxa. In the case of genera, the term "unispec ...

: no subspecies are recognised. A

molecular phylogenetic Molecular phylogenetics () is the branch of phylogeny that analyzes genetic, hereditary molecular differences, predominantly in DNA sequences, to gain information on an organism's evolutionary relationships. From these analyses, it is possible to ...

study published in 2018 found that the racket-tailed roller was most closely related to the purple roller (''Coracias naevius''). Alternate names for the racket-tailed roller include the Angola racket-tailed roller and Weigall's roller.

Description

The racket-tailed roller is so named for the conspicuous elongated outer feathers on its tail which have long streamers ending in paddle-shaped tips. The bird is long with the streamers extending another . The forehead and superciliary streak are white, the crown dull green, the back rufous and the tail blue. The underparts are pale blue with whitish streaking. In flight, the purple upper wing with its azure-blue stripe can be seen. The under wing is pale blue with a purplish-black trailing edge and tip. The bird somewhat resembles the

European roller The European roller (''Coracias garrulus'') is the only member of the roller family of birds to breed in Europe. Its overall range extends into the Middle East, Central Asia and the Maghreb. The European roller is found in a wide variety of ha ...

(''Coracias garrulus'') and the

lilac-breasted roller The lilac-breasted roller (''Coracias caudatus'') is an African bird of the roller family, Coraciidae. It is widely distributed in Southern and Eastern Africa, and is a vagrant to the southern Arabian Peninsula. It prefers open woodland and sa ...

(''Coracias caudatus''), but those species lack the distinctive tail streamers. The beak is black, the eye brownish and the legs are dull yellowish. The juvenile is similar to the adult but less vivid, and lacks the attenuated tail feathers. The voice is a harsh guttural shriek, uttered as it swoops down.

Behaviour and ecology

Similar to other members of ''

Coracias ''Coracias'' is a genus of the rollers, an Old World family of near passerine birds related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters. They share the colourful appearance of those groups, blues and browns predominating. The two outer front toes a ...

'', this species hunts for prey from a perch in the mid-storey region of woodland. When it spots something edible on the forest floor it swoops down to grab the prey. The diet consists mainly of grasshoppers, beetles, insect larvae, scorpions and small lizards. This roller is usually a solitary bird or occurs in pairs, but may form small groups of six or seven birds. It is a territorial species, driving away intruders by rocketing from a height with a raucous screech, rolling from side to side as it levels off, before using its momentum to rise to a perch. It nests in a cavity in a tree trunk or branch about off the ground, often using a disused nest of a

woodpecker Woodpeckers are part of the bird family Picidae, which also includes the piculets, wrynecks, and sapsuckers. Members of this family are found worldwide, except for Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, Madagascar, and the extreme polar region ...

or barbet. The

clutch A clutch is a mechanical device that engages and disengages power transmission, especially from a drive shaft to a driven shaft. In the simplest application, clutches connect and disconnect two rotating shafts (drive shafts or line shafts ...

is laid in the unlined cavity and usually consists of three or four eggs, but little is known of the nesting habits of this species.

Status

The racket-tailed roller is a fairly common species with a very wide range. The population trend is thought to be declining because of loss of the forest habitat, especially miombo and mopane woodland. However, no particular threats have been identified and the

International Union for Conservation of Nature The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natur ...

has assessed the bird's conservation status as being of "

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. Th ...

References

External links

* Racket-tailed roller
Species text in The Atlas of Southern African Birds
{{Taxonbar, from=Q786566 racket-tailed roller Birds of Central Africa Birds of East Africa racket-tailed roller Taxonomy articles created by Polbot