Lilac-breasted roller: Where It Lives, Map & Facts

Where the lilac-breasted roller lives – recorded in 14 countries, with quick facts from Wikidata and an introduction from Wikipedia.

Scientific name	Coracias caudatus
Group	Woodpeckers, kingfishers, hornbills & toucans
Status	Least concern (Wikidata, IUCN category label)
Found in	14 countries
Continents	Africa
Class	Bird
Order	Coraciiformes
Family	Coraciidae

Where does the lilac-breasted roller live?

Open-licence (CC0 / CC BY) wild records published on GBIF place the lilac-breasted roller in 14 countries and territories across Africa. Wikidata gives its range as: Africa.

Countries with at least a handful of records (a minimum share of the species’ records, to leave out vagrants and escapes). Records with coordinates only; captive and fossil records excluded.

Is the lilac-breasted roller endangered?

The lilac-breasted roller’s conservation status recorded in Wikidata is “Least concern” (an IUCN Red List category label). Source: Wikidata.

What kind of animal is the lilac-breasted roller?

The lilac-breasted roller (Coracias caudatus) is a bird in the order Coraciiformes and the family Coraciidae, genus Coracias. (Taxonomy from Wikidata.)

About 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 savanna, and it is for the most part absent from treeless places. Usually found alone or in pairs, it perches at the tops of trees, poles or other high vantage points from where it can spot insects, amphibians and small birds moving about on the ground. Nesting takes place in a natural hole in a tree where a clutch of 2–4 eggs are laid, and incubated by both parents, who are extremely aggressive in defence of their nest, taking on raptors and other birds. During the breeding season the male will rise to a fair height (69 to 144 metres), descending in swoops and dives, while uttering harsh, discordant cries. The sexes do not differ in coloration, and juveniles lack the long tail streamers of adults. This species is unofficially considered the national bird of Kenya. Alternative names for the lilac-breasted roller include the fork-tailed roller, lilac-throated roller (also used for a subspecies of purple roller), Mosilikatze's roller, and troupand.

Text in “About” is quoted from the Wikipedia article Lilac-breasted roller (revision 1357293343), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: lead section excerpted verbatim, formatting removed. Quick facts, taxonomy and status: Wikidata Q44023 (CC0). Countries and pin: GBIF.org occurrence records (CC0 / CC BY 4.0).