What to Know About Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda?

The Lilac-Breasted Roller in Uganda is one of the African Uganda Birds seen during birding tours. It is an African member of the roller family of birds. It is widely distributed in sub-Saharan Africa, preferring open woodland and savanna; it is largely absent from treeless places.

Usually found alone or in pairs in Murchison falls national park, it perches conspicuously at the tops of trees, poles, or other high vantage points from where it can spot insects, lizards, scorpions, snails, small birds, and rodents moving about at ground level.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Look Like?

In the field, these crow-sized rollers are often perched alone on a tree in a grassy clearing. Lilac-breasted rollers are almost unmistakable with their bright plumage, but may be confused with Abyssinian Rollers in the Turkana Basin of Kenya.

For C. c. caudatus, look for a lilac throat that deepens into a darker lilac breast. The crown to mantle is olive, and the cheeks and ear coverts are a lilac-rufous.

In the subspecies C. c. lorti, the crown to mantle is blue instead of olive, and the breast is azure.

The throat is lilac, and some blue-throated rollers have a lilac patch on the lower abdomen. Both subspecies have long black outermost tail feathers that are absent in juveniles.

Lilac-breasted rollers are not sexually dimorphic but males may be slightly larger than females. The average mass is 104 grams, and length ranges from 36 to 38 centimeters.

These acrobatic fliers have an average wingspan range of 50 to 58 cm. Unique to rollers are syndactyl feet, in which the second and third digits are fuse.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Sing and Make Calls?

The call of a lilac-breasted roller is a harsh, sawing “rak rak rak” that is used during flight. Usually, the bird will perch to sing.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Feed?

The diet of the lilac-breasted roller is primarily insectivorous, consisting of ground-dwelling insects, arthropods, amphibians, and other small vertebrates.

They are in the hawking guild of feeders. Because they feed on insects, Lilac-breasted rollers will perch to scout out prey from a higher vantage point before swooping in and grabbing prey with their beaks.

If they prey is small, they will swallow it on the ground. These aggressive birds will carry larger prey back to a perch and beat it until it is dismembered.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Nest?

Build flat nests of grass in dead baobab, coconut, or a casuarina trees. Some birds may nest in hollowed out tree cavities about 5 meters off the ground.

Lilac-breasted rollers do not create the cavities themselves; they take over nest spaces that have been previously hollowed out by woodpeckers or kingfishers.

Males and females are protective of the nest and will fly in a rolling pattern as a territorial display.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Breed

Lilac-breasted rollers breed from late April to mid-September. Lilac-breasted rollers breed at various times of the year, depending on the location and season.

Both subspecies are monogamous. During courtship, lilac-breasted rollers with fly upwards and then tip forward with the wings closed.

Then they will flap their wings to gain speed towards the ground while calling loudly.

How Does the Lilac-breasted Roller in Uganda Reproduce?

The average clutch size ranges from two to four eggs. Male and female partners will take turns incubating the eggs for 22 to 24 days. Hatchlings are born altricial, becoming fully feathered after 19 days.