Indian roller

The Indian roller (Coracias benghalensis) is a bird of the family Coraciidae. It is long with a wingspan of and weighs . The face and throat are pinkish, the head and back are brown, with blue on the rump and contrasting light and dark blue on the wings and tail. The bright blue markings on the wing are prominent in flight. The sexes are similar in appearance. Two subspecies are recognised. The Indian roller occurs widely from West Asia to the Indian subcontinent. Often found perched on roadside trees and wires, it is common in open grassland and scrub forest habitats, and has adapted well to human-modified landscapes. It mainly feeds on insects, especially beetles. The species is best known for the aerobatic displays of males during the breeding season. Adult males and females form pair bonds and raise the young together. The female lays 3–5 eggs in a cavity or crevice, which is lined with a thin mat of straw or feathers. The roller is the state bird of three Indian states. It is listed as a species of least concern on the IUCN Red List. The Indian roller was one of the many bird species originally described by Carl Linnaeus in the 1758 10th edition of Systema Naturae, where he coined the binomial name Corvus benghalensis. Linnaeus based his description on the "Jay from Bengal" described and illustrated in 1731 by the English naturalist Eleazar Albin, derived from a drawing by illustrator Joseph Dandridge. In 1766, Linnaeus described an Indian roller under the name Coracias indica, based on a description by George Edwards in 1764 of a specimen collected in Sri Lanka. The latter name was used for many years; Indian ornithologist Biswamoy Biswas suspected it was because Linnaeus' 12th edition of Systema Naturae was preferred as the starting point for formal descriptions. German ornithologist Ernst Hartert determined there were distinct northern and southern subspecies and allocated benghalensis to the former and indicus to the latter.