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Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis

The Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis), is a member of the roller family of birds. They are found widely across tropical Asia from Iraq eastward across the Indian Subcontinent to Indochina and are best known for the aerobatic displays of the male during the breeding season. They are very commonly seen perched along roadside trees and wires and are commonly seen in open grassland and scrub forest habitats.

It is not migratory, but undertakes some seasonal movements. The largest populations of the species are within India, and several states in India have chosen it as their state bird.

Distribution and habitat
The Indian Roller is distributed across Asia, from Iraq and United Arab Emirates in south-western Asia through the Indian Subcontinent, including Sri Lanka, Lakshadweep islands and Maldive Islands into Southeast Asia. Its main habitat includes cultivated areas, thin forest and grassland.

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง


Taxonomy and systematics
The Indian Roller was originally described as belonging to the genus Corvus. Alternate names for the Indian Roller include the Indian blue roller, northern roller and southern blue roller.

Subspecies
Three subspecies are recognized:

• C. b. benghalensis - (Linnaeus, 1758): Found from eastern Arabia to north-eastern India and Bangladesh

• Southern roller (C. b. indicus) - Linnaeus, 1766: Originally described as a separate species. Found in central and southern India, Sri Lanka

• Burmese roller (C. b. affinis) - Horsfield, 1840: Originally described as a separate species. Also called the Indochinese roller. Found from north-eastern India to south-central China, northern Malay Peninsula and Indochina

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller - C. b. indicus - We can see that the bill is aberrant
Yala, Sri Lanka - May 2017


Birdforum

Aberrant bill, a little something I learned on Birdforum. I posted a question:

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง


Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller - C. b. benghalensis
Pench, India - February 2016
Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller - C. b. affinis
Bangkok, Thailand - July 2016


Description
The Indian Roller is a stocky bird about 26–27 cm long and can only be confused within its range with the migratory European roller. The breast is brownish and not blue as in the European Roller. The crown and vent are blue. The primaries are deep purplish blue with a band of pale blue. The tail is sky blue with a terminal band of Prussian blue and the central feathers are dull green.

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller - C. b. benghalensis
Bardia, Nepal - March 2018

The neck and throat are purplish lilac with white shaft streaks. The bare patch around the eye is ochre in colour. The three forward toes are united at the base. Rollers have a long and compressed bill with a curved upper edge and a hooked tip. The nostril is long and exposed and there are long rictal bristles at the base of the bill.

Three subspecies are usually recognized. The nominate form is found from western Asia (Iraq, Arabia) east across the Indian Subcontinent, and within India north of the Vindhyas mountain ranges. The subspecies indicus is found in peninsular India and Sri Lanka. The southern form has a darker reddish collar on the hind neck which is missing in the nominate form.

The race affinis of northeastern India and Southeast Asia (Thailand, Myanmar, Indochina) is sometimes considered a full species, but within the Indian region, it is seen to intergrade with benghalensis. The form affinis is darker, larger and has a purplish brown and unstreaked face and breast. It has underwing coverts in a deeper shade of blue.

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller - The darker and larger C. b. affinis
has a purplish brown and unstreaked face and breast
Bangkok, Thailand - July 2016

Ecology and behaviour
Indian Rollers are often seen perched on prominent bare trees or wires. They descend to the ground to capture their prey which may include insects, arachnids, small reptiles, small snakes and amphibians. Fires attract them and they will also follow tractors for disturbed invertebrates.

In agricultural habitats in southern India, they have been found at densities of about 50 birds per km2. They perch mainly on 3—10 metre high perches and feed mostly on ground insects.

Nearly 50% of their prey are beetles and 25% made up by grasshoppers and crickets. It has been suggest that the Indian Roller could play a role in controlling agricultural insect pests due to its feeding behaviour.

The feeding behaviour of this roller and habitat usage are very similar to that of the Black Drongo . During summer, they may also feed late in the evening and make use of artificial lights and feed on insects attracted to them. They are attracted to swarms of winged termites, and as many as 40 birds have been seen to perch on a 70-metre stretch of electric wires.

Its habit of feeding near roadsides sometimes results in collisions with traffic. A decline in the numbers of these birds seen along roadsides in northern India has been noted.

A study on roosting behaviour found that immediately after waking up, the birds spend a few minutes preening followed by flying around their roosting sites. Favoured perches include electric or telegraphic wires. They have also been observed perching in trees and shrubs.

Perch

noun a thing on which a bird alights or roosts, typically a branch or a horizontal rod or bar in a birdcage.
• a place where someone or something rests or sits, especially one that is high or precarious: Marian looked down from her perch in a beech tree above the road.

verb [no OBJ., with ADVERBIAL OF PLACE] (of a bird) alight or rest on something: a herring gull perched on the rails for most of the crossing.

Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Indian Roller and a Drongo
Pench, India - February 2016

Rollers tend mostly at a heights of 3-9 m height from where they forage for ground insects. They may also use taller perches and obtain insects from the upper canopy of trees.

The display of this bird is an aerobatic display, with the twists and turns that give this species its English name. The breeding season is March to June, slightly earlier in southern India. Displays when perched include bill-up displays, bowing, allopreening, wing drooping and tail fanning. Holes created by Woodpeckers or wood boring insects in palms are favoured for nesting in some areas.

Nest cavities may also be made by tearing open rotten tree trunks or in cavities in building. The cavity is usually unlined and is made up mainly of debris from the wood. The normal clutch consists of about 3-5 eggs. The eggs are white and broad oval or nearly spherical. Both sexes incubate the eggs for about 17 to 19 days. The young fledge and leave the nest after about a month. Nearly 80% of the eggs hatch and fledge.

The call of the Indian Roller is a harsh crow-like chack sound. It also makes a variety of other sounds, including metallic boink calls. It is especially vociferous during the breeding season.

Listen to the Indian Roller

The bird bathes in open water by plunge-diving into it, a behaviour often interpreted as fishing. But it may occasionally attempt fishing from water.

Blood parasites Leucocytozoon of the family Plasmodiidae have been noted in the lung tissues. Parasitic helminth worms Hadjelia truncata and Synhimantus spiralis were recorded as well.

In culture
The Indian Roller is very common in the populated plains of India and associated with Hindu legends. It is said to be sacred to Vishnu, and used to be caught and released during festivals such as Dussera or the last day of Durga Puja. A local Hindi name is neelkanth, meaning "blue throat", a name associated with the deity Shiva (who drank poison resulting in the blue throat). Adding its chopped feathers to grass and feeding them to cows was believed to increase their milk yield. The Indian Roller has been chosen as the state bird by the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka and Telangana.

Conservation status
Indian Roller, ठेउवा, Coracias benghalensis, นกตะขาบทุ่ง
Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. IUCN. 2016: e.T22725914A94905872.
doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22725914A94905872.en. Retrieved 14 January 2018.


The African Roller was my favourite bird in Africa, the Indian Roller is also very beautiful, but the Liliac Breated Roller in Africa is outstanding. Click HERE to see the Liliac Breated Roller


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

www.birdforum.net


Sighted: 24 January 2016
Location: Along the road, 1 hour from Khajuraho on my way to Bandhavgarh, India


Among others I have used Peter Ericsson's web page Birds of Thailand These galleries contain 668 species of the Birds of Thailand and have been of a great help to identify some of the birds as the birds in Thailand and India are, well, many of them are the same.

I have had most help from my friend, the bird pal I met at Suan Rot Fai. Sending pictures of birds I have not been able to identify to him via Line. 3 minutes later he and he have managed to identify most of the birds I have had problems with. THANKS! Visit his web page m☥lever for his beautiful pictures.

And my new aid, maybe, and I say maybe the best aid. I brought my mobile phone as my SIM card have stopped working and I tried to get it to work again so I can use the internet. Thus I had my phone in my pocket on my first game drive in Jim Corbett National Park.

We saw a bird and I asked my Guide and the driver if they had a pen and a paper as I had forgot my pen and paper in my room. I remembered my LG phone and I recorded the name. And thus I will always bring my phone. Writing the name in the car and I have found more than once that it can be hard to read what I had wrote when I'm back in my room.

So now I always have my mobile in my pocket and it has been a great help. And from November 2018 I use eBird. Bird watching in U.A.E and Oman and my guide in Dubai recommended eBird and I have used the app since then and I note every bird I can identify in my eBird app.

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
24 January 2016 - Along the road, 1 hour from Khajuraho on my way to Bandhavgarh, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
24 January 2016 - Along the road, 1 hour from Khajuraho on my way to Bandhavgarh, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
24 January 2016 - Along the road, 1 hour from Khajuraho on my way to Bandhavgarh, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
24 January 2016 - Along the road, 1 hour from Khajuraho on my way to Bandhavgarh, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
28 January 2016 - Along the road, on the way to Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
28 January 2016 - Along the road, on the way to Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
29 January 2016 - Kanha Tiger reserve, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
2 February 2016 - Pench, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
2 February 2016 - Pench, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
2 February 2016 - Pench, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
2 February 2016 - Pench, India

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
19 May 2017 - Udawalawa National Park, Sri Lanka

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
19 May 2017 - Udawalawa National Park, Sri Lanka

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
24 May 2017 - At my hotel in Yala, Sri Lanka

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller
27 March 2018 - Location: Bardiya/ Bardia National Park, Nepal

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller - 8 August 2022
Location: Korean EZB, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis
Indian Roller - 8 August 2022
Location: Korean EZB, Chittagong Division, Bangladesh

Indian Roller, Coracias benghalensis



PLEASE! If I have made any mistakes identifying any bird, PLEASE let me know on my guestbook



       
                  



                                       

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