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Picture of the day

The purple roller (Coracias naevius), also known as the rufous-crowned roller, is a medium-sized species of bird in the family Coraciidae widespread in sub-Saharan Africa. Compared with other rollers its colours are rather dull and its voice rather harsh and grating. Its preferred habitat is dry thornveld, where it spends long periods perched at the top of thorn trees or poles, watching for food items such as insects, spiders, scorpions and small lizards on the ground. It rocks to-and-fro about its longitudinal axis during display flights, calling raucously all the while; starting from above the treetops it plummets towards the ground in rolling flight. The species is territorial, and during the breeding season it will drive off other rollers, small hawks, and crows. This purple roller, of the subspecies C. n. mosambicus, was photographed in Etosha National Park, Namibia.Photograph credit: Charles J. Sharp