Abyssinian Roller

My fourth roller, the Abyssinian roller, was found in Kidepo Valley NP in Uganda. My guide, William, had found one for me early-on but I  was not able to photograph it before it flew. Late in our time there I finally found one just off the road in a tree. I was relieved to get the photo, it was a bird I really wanted to photograph.

It is pale blue with a white forehead and chin, brown upperparts and rump, dark blue tail coverts and center of tail, most of the tail is bright azure-blue and the outer tail feathers are elongated into thin black streamers, and thin white streaks from the throat to upper breast. The bird in my photos does not have the long black tail streamers (the fifth photo particularly reveals that) and is not as colorful as some of the birds in the photos on Birds of the World, two factors that lead me to believe it is a juvenile. 

Abyssinian roller illustration from Birds of the World.

Abyssinian roller range from Birds of the World. The orange area indicates breeding and the blue area indicates year-round. Where we were in Uganda it is a year-round resident. Note its presence in western Yemen and southwestern Saudi Arabia.  

Ethiopia used to be called Abyssinia and it is found in Ethiopia, so I am assuming that connection to Ethiopia is where it gets its name, although another name for it is the Senegal roller which is on the opposite side of Africa. Roller comes from aerial acrobatics the roller birds do during courtship. 

There are nine species of roller and I've now seen four of them (Lilac-breasted, Indochina, broad-billed and Abyssinian). They are so spectacular that I would love to see them all.