European roller

European roller
Coracias garrulus, Linnaeus, 1758

It inhabits dry, warm, open areas with single trees, groves and loose forests that are rich in large ground insects (beetles, grasshoppers, etc.). The European roller usually nests in abandoned black woodpecker’s hollows or in naturally existing holes in rotten broadleaf trees. It is also willing to take up nest boxes of appropriate size. In Poland its number is constantly decreasing; in the eastern part of the country only a few dozen pairs remain. The reason lies in the change of agricultural landscape, liquidation of buffer strips and cutting down of old, hollow trees.
Distribution: central, eastern and southern Europe, northwestern African coast; winters in Africa, south of the equator

male / female
body length: 31–35 cm
wingspan: 62–72 cm
body mass: 0,12–0,15 kg