We visited Kaziranga National Park in Assam, India during December 2024 and spent five days at the Diphlu Lodge there. On our first drive into the Western Range I noticed a beautiful purplish/blue bird fly and land in a tree. I called our guide's attention to it and it was the first of quite a few Indochinese rollers we saw. It is not as pretty as the lilac breasted roller we have seen previously in Africa, but it is very striking.
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| This blurry picture is kind of what I saw when flying. A blast of purple and blue. |
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| This is the first roller we saw. |
Wikipedia describes it as follows: "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. 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. It has a purplish brown and unstreaked face and breast. It has underwing coverts in a deep shade of blue." It is fun that both pictures on Wikipedia were taken in Kaziranga NP. It appears to be virtually the same as the Indian roller, but has blue or purple on the throat.
It is found in northeastern India in Assam, as well as Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam and bits of Nepal and China.
