The European Roller (Coracias garrulus) is arguably the most vividly coloured bird in Europe, turquoise-blue and rust-brown, and the sole European representative of its family; despite its name, it is not related to crows but belongs to a predominantly tropical, southern bird group. It measures 30-32 cm in length and has a wingspan of 66-73 cm. Head, underside and wing coverts shine intense turquoise-blue, the back is warm rust-brown and the wingtips dark; the bill is powerful and slightly hooked, and in flight the blue wing panels with their dark tips are highly conspicuous, giving a crow-like, powerful flight style.
Its call is a hoarse, screeching, crow-like "rack-rack-rack", quite unlike its brilliant colours would suggest. The Roller breeds in open, warm landscapes across southern and eastern Europe, North Africa and western Asia, wintering in tropical and southern Africa; it bred in Sweden, mainly on Öland and in Skåne, until 1967, but has since become nationally extinct as a breeding species, one of the most notable examples of a bird lost from the Swedish fauna. It is now seen only as a rare summer vagrant, mainly in the southern provinces. The European population, estimated at 100,000-200,000 pairs, has long been declining owing to the loss of open pastures, old hollow trees and insect-rich habitat. As a hole-nester it places its nest in a natural tree cavity, an old woodpecker hole, or occasionally a sand bank, and the female lays usually 4-5 eggs. It hunts by watching from a perch, a branch, post or wire, before dropping onto prey on the ground, taking large insects such as beetles and grasshoppers as well as lizards, frogs and small rodents.
Read about this species in Swedish →