No. 208 on our checklistEuropean Roller (Coracias garrulus)

A turquoise bird with a cinnamon back sits on a dry branch above the steppe, perfectly still. Then it drops to the ground, grabs a beetle and flies back to the same branch, and when it opens its wings they flash deep violet blue and black. The European Roller is the bird our photographers come to Dobrogea for in June, and one of the most colourful birds in Europe.

When to see it in the Danube Delta and Dobrogea

1. JanAbsent
2. FebAbsent
3. MarAbsent
4. AprRare
5. MayModerate
6. JunModerate
7. JulModerate
8. AugModerate
9. SepModerate
10. OctVery rare
11. NovAbsent
12. DecAbsent

Status here

Summer breeder. Common in summer.

IUCN Red List

Least Concern

Our checklist

No. 208 of 385 · see the full checklist

How to recognise it

It is the size of a jackdaw, with a big head and a strong, slightly hooked black bill. The head, the breast and the belly are turquoise blue, the back is warm cinnamon brown, and the wings show a band of deep violet blue at the shoulder. In flight the wings look electric blue with black tips, and the tail is blue with dark corners. Male and female look almost the same. Young birds are duller and browner, with less blue.

Perched, it sits upright and still for long minutes on a dry branch, a fence post or an electric wire, often along roads through open country. Its call is a hard, crow like “rak rak”, and you often hear it before you notice the bird.

Feeding and nesting

The roller hunts by waiting. From its perch it watches the ground and drops on large insects, beetles, grasshoppers and crickets, and sometimes on lizards, frogs or small mice, then carries the prey back to the perch and beats it before swallowing.

It nests in holes and does not dig them itself. It uses old woodpecker holes in poplars and willows, cavities in old trees, holes in sandy and loess banks, gaps in walls and old buildings, and nest boxes. The female lays usually four or five white eggs, and the chicks stay in the hole for almost a month.

Where to see it in the Danube Delta and Dobrogea

Rollers arrive from Africa in late April and early May and leave in August and September. They like open, dry, warm country with a few trees: most of them nest in Dobrogea, in the steppe and the farmland with their rows of poplars and their electric wires. In the Danube Delta they nest mainly on the large islands, Letea, Caraorman and Grindul Chiliei, and also along the channels, in the hollows of old willows. The checklist of the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve, published in 2023, estimates 500 to 600 pairs in the Danube Delta and the Razim Sinoe lagoons. Our checklist marks it moderate from May to September.

For photographers, our private photo tour from hides for bee-eaters, rollers and little owls in Dobrogea runs from 7 May to 25 July, when the rollers are busy at their nests. Birders see it on most days of the birding tour of the Danube Delta and Dobrogea.

Interesting facts

• Why “roller”. In spring the male climbs high and then tumbles down, rolling from side to side, with loud calls. This display flight gave the bird its English name.
• A chatterbox. Garrulus means “chattering” in Latin, for its noisy calls.
• A smelly defence. When a predator reaches into the nest, roller chicks throw up a foul smelling orange liquid. It works as a warning and makes the nest unpleasant to enter.
• Saved by boxes. In western Romania, Milvus Group put up more than 800 nest boxes in a LIFE project; in the first year 84 pairs of rollers used them, and by the fifth year 217 pairs.
• Blue from structure. The blue of its feathers is not a pigment: it comes from the fine structure of the feathers, which scatters light.

Status and threats

The European Roller breeds from southern Europe and North Africa to Central Asia and winters in Africa south of the Sahara. It was listed as Near Threatened by the IUCN because of a steep decline in Europe, and since 2015 it has been listed as Least Concern. It still disappears wherever old trees are cut, hedgerows removed and grasslands ploughed.

For the roller, the greatest danger is the chemistry of modern agriculture. A pair needs a great many large insects and small mammals to raise its chicks, and pesticides and rodent poisons take away exactly that food, from the fields of Dobrogea to the edges of the Danube Delta.