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Today on Animal Fact Files we’re discussing blue-bellied rollers. Rollers get their common name from their aerial display of "rolling" during courtship - though it's worth noting one researcher suggests never actually witnessing this. Still, their courtship is acrobatic. This particular species gets its common name from its blue belly. While bright colors tend to be limited to the males in bird species, this brilliant hue is present in both male and female blue bellied rollers who are nearly indistinguishable from each other. Close observation shows males are just slightly larger than their female counterparts, but the plumage between the sexes is the same. Blue bellied rollers are about a foot (30.5cm) long not including the longer tail feathers. These aren't present in the duller colored juveniles.

These birds are endemic to Africa. They live in savannahs and forest edges in the western and central part of the continent. In fact, blue bellied rollers have likely benefited from humans expansion into their home range. By clearing forests and replacing them with open fields for agriculture, the rollers have access to clear patches of grassland next to tall trees. This is a favorite place to be for a blue bellied roller! They perch in trees and patiently watch and wait for prey like large insects, lizards, snakes, frogs, and more to crawl across the open expanse of land beneath them. When a meal is spotted, the roller pounces from its branch and lands squarely on its prize. It quickly stuffs its mouth and returns to the perch to indulge in its meal.

Blue bellied rollers are agile and often considered the socially dominant perching birds in an area. The adults have few predators, though young and eggs may be taken by rodents, snakes, and monitor lizards. Blue bellied rollers also fight other species, like other rollers, for nesting sites. These birds nest in trees and specifically prefer palm trees.

These birds mate year round, but their young are most frequently produced from the spring to summer. Blue bellied rollers get funky as they get busy. Reverse mounting is not uncommon in their species where partners swap positions, sometimes more than twenty times in a single encounter! They're sometimes described as monogamous, but this doesn't seem to hold entirely true based on some observations. Male blue bellied rollers frequently mate with multiple females, sometimes in the span of just ten minutes, and females take on multiple partners, as well. It's likely that both partners incubate the eggs to some extent, but the female likely does more, especially in situations where extra-pair copulation has occurred.

Blue bellied rollers lay two to three eggs on average, and these incubate for about twenty to twenty-four days. The chicks take a month to fledge, or grow their feathers for flight, and leave their parent's territory within a week or two's time. It's unknown when they reach sexual maturity, but they likely live 5-10 years in the wild.

The blue bellied roller's call is described as a dry cackle. Here's what it sounds like.

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