Cinnamon roller

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cinnamon roller
Cinnamon roller

Cinnamon roller

Systematics
Class : Birds (aves)
Order : Rockers (Coraciiformes)
Family : Racken (Coraciidae)
Genre : Eurystom
Type : Cinnamon roller
Scientific name
Eurystomus glaucurus
( Statius Müller , 1776)

The cinnamon roller ( Eurystomus glaucurus ) is a bird of the sack family that lives in the Afrotropic ecozone .

features

The cinnamon roller is about 29-30 centimeters tall. The top and bottom of the torso and the head are rust to chestnut colored, the chest is tinged with purple. The small and large covers of the hand wings are dark blue. The tail is light blue on the underside and dark on the tip. The under tail coverts are also light blue. The yellow beak is short and strong. The legs are gray, the iris is dark.

Possible confusion

The distribution area of ​​the bluethroat roller and cinnamon roller overlap in the central and west African rainforest zone . The bluethroat roller is smaller and has a small bruise on the throat. The top, chest and belly are also rust colored. The underside is blackish.

Occurrence

The cinnamon roller occurs in Madagascar , west of Senegal to eastern Sudan , in southern Angola and in northern South Africa .

habitat

The cinnamon roller lives in large clearings and on river banks in the rainforest zone, in savanna forest , farmland with scattered trees, on wooded hills and grassy plains with some groups of trees. It needs large trees and mainly lives near water.

Subspecies

There are four known subspecies :

  • E. g. afer - is widespread from Senegal via Nigeria to Sudan. The back is brown, the flanks are pale greenish-blue.
  • E. g. aethiopicus - its distribution area overlaps in Sudan with E. g. afer and in Uganda and Kenya with E. g. suahelicus , it is also found in Ethiopia . Its appearance is similar to E. g. afer , however, it is slightly larger and the rust- and purple-colored body parts are lighter.
  • E. g. suahelicus - its range overlaps with E. g. afer and E. g. aethiopicus between 5 ° north and the equator , it also extends to Angola, Transvaal and Zululand . The rust- and purple-colored body parts are lighter than in E. g. aethiopicus . The head is tinted violet, the underside is uniformly blue. He is a little bigger than E. g. afer .
  • E. g. glaucurus - it occurs in Madagascar and winters in East Africa . It is similar to E. g. suahelicus , but has a dark gray-blue underside and is larger.

literature

  • CH Fry, K. Fry, A. Harris: Kingfishers, Bee-eaters and Rollers . ISBN 0-7136-8028-8 (English)

Web links

Commons : Cinnamon Rollers ( Eurystomus glaucurus )  - Collection of images, videos and audio files