Unlimited edition. 18 x 24 inch, museum-quality poster on matte paper.

Don’t mistake the lilac-breasted roller’s fabulosity for foppishness. Rollers are fearsome predators. Hunting alone or in pairs, the birds perch on treetops, poles, or other advantageous points in the acacia woodland and savanna of Southern and Eastern Africa. There, they watch for small creatures moving about below. Once prey is spotted, the roller swoops down alongside the target and seizes it with its large bill. Depending on the prey’s size, it’s either swallowed whole by the roller at the point of capture or carried back to a perch where the roller will thrash and dismember the animal for easier consumption. The roller’s menu is long: locusts, crickets, beetles, butterflies and moths, ants, scorpions, centipedes, spiders, snails, frogs, lizards, snakes, and even smaller birds.

Roadsides are a favorite roller hunting site – everything crosses the road at some point….or doesn’t, if the roller is watching. Lilac-breasted rollers will also hunt at wildfire fringes, grabbing prey species as they flee the flames. Although rollers make good use of human interventions on the landscape (e.g., roads), the species is not found near human habitation unless our species has abandoned the site.

While it’s impossible to ignore the beautiful plumage of a lilac-breasted roller, the bird’s proportionally large head impresses, too. Looking at videos of the species, I found myself thinking about the size of its noggin and those of kingfishers and bee-eaters, fellow members of the order Coraciiformes. I wondered, should I consider Coraciiformes the big-headed order? Turns out, yes, but it’s not *just* the big head – proportionally small feet are part of the package, too! 

Note: These archival poster prints feature rich, appealing colors. I encourage customers to take care in handling them until they are framed/protected for display; the darker colors on the matte paper can be scratched. They ship rolled, so customers need to flatten them before framing (or have their framer do so).

Charitable Sales Model: Whenever one of these poster prints is purchased, a charitable contribution equal to 10% of the print’s cost (or $3.60) is made to a nonprofit working to tackle environmental or social challenges. Read more about my charitable sales model here.