{
  "kind": "species",
  "slug": "coracias-spatulatus",
  "scientificName": "Coracias spatulatus",
  "commonNames": {
    "en": "Racket-tailed Roller",
    "af": "Knopsterttroupant"
  },
  "family": "coraciidae",
  "status": "resident",
  "monthsPresent": [
    1,
    2,
    3,
    4,
    5,
    6,
    7,
    8,
    9,
    10,
    11,
    12
  ],
  "size": {
    "lengthCm": {
      "min": 36,
      "max": 38
    },
    "note": "Includes the tail streamers. Without them the bird is about 28–30 cm, and the streamers add about 8 cm. Newman's Birds gives 36 cm."
  },
  "habitat": "Well-developed broad-leaved woodland, including miombo and mopane. In South Africa it is a northern Kruger bird and is sparse south of the Limpopo.",
  "summary": "An uncommon resident of northern Kruger. Adults have a white forehead and eyebrow, a dull green crown, a rufous back, pale blue underparts with whitish streaking, and outer tail feathers that end in paddles. The southern birds lack the pink underparts of some northern populations. The sexes are not separately described. The juvenile is less vivid, browner above, more lilac on the cheeks and sides of the breast, and lacks the racket tips. The chick is not described.",
  "sampleData": false,
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "coracias-caudatus",
      "note": "Lilac-breasted Roller has a lilac breast and straight tail streamers, not paddle tips."
    },
    {
      "slug": "coracias-garrulus",
      "note": "European Roller has no tail streamers. Its back is brown and it lacks the racket-tailed roller's white forehead streak."
    },
    {
      "slug": "coracias-naevius",
      "note": "Purple Roller has a square tail and purple underparts heavily streaked white."
    },
    {
      "slug": "eurystomus-glaucurus",
      "note": "Broad-billed Roller has a yellow bill and cinnamon upperparts, and no racket tail."
    }
  ],
  "sources": [
    {
      "title": "Racket-tailed roller",
      "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket-tailed_roller",
      "publisher": "Wikipedia",
      "year": 2026
    },
    {
      "title": "Racket-tailed Roller",
      "url": "https://newmansbirds.com/birds/racket-tailed-roller/",
      "publisher": "Newman's Birds",
      "year": null
    },
    {
      "title": "Racket-tailed Roller. The atlas of southern African birds",
      "url": "https://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/448.pdf",
      "publisher": "Avian Demography Unit",
      "year": 1997
    },
    {
      "title": "Coracias spatulatus (Racket-tailed roller)",
      "url": "https://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/birds/coraciidae/coracias_spatulatus.htm",
      "publisher": "Biodiversity Explorer",
      "year": null
    },
    {
      "title": "Birds of Kruger National Park – a checklist",
      "url": "https://birda.org/kruger-national-park-birding-checklist/",
      "publisher": "Birda",
      "year": 2026
    },
    {
      "title": "Birds checklist – Kruger National Park",
      "url": "https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/explore/fauna-flora/birds/checklist",
      "publisher": "SANParks",
      "year": null
    }
  ],
  "population": {
    "estimate": {
      "low": null,
      "high": null
    },
    "unit": null,
    "trend": "unknown",
    "confidence": null,
    "asOf": null,
    "notes": "No Kruger census figure was found. The Birda SABAP2 Kruger checklist, consulted on 2 November 2026, lists 166 records. That is a count of atlas records, not birds. SABAP1 calls it nowhere common and restricts the South African population, apart from vagrants, to northern Kruger. Wikipedia, citing the IUCN, says the wider population trend is thought to be declining because of woodland loss, and that the global status is Least Concern. That is not entered as a Kruger count or a park trend.",
    "sources": [
      {
        "title": "Birds of Kruger National Park – a checklist",
        "url": "https://birda.org/kruger-national-park-birding-checklist/",
        "publisher": "Birda",
        "year": 2026
      },
      {
        "title": "Racket-tailed Roller. The atlas of southern African birds",
        "url": "https://sabap2.adu.org.za/docs/sabap1/448.pdf",
        "publisher": "Avian Demography Unit",
        "year": 1997
      },
      {
        "title": "Racket-tailed roller",
        "url": "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racket-tailed_roller",
        "publisher": "Wikipedia",
        "year": 2026
      },
      {
        "title": "Birds checklist – Kruger National Park",
        "url": "https://www.sanparks.org/parks/kruger/explore/fauna-flora/birds/checklist",
        "publisher": "SANParks",
        "year": null
      }
    ]
  },
  "variants": [
    {
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "marks": {
        "bill": {
          "colour": "black",
          "shape": null
        },
        "eye": {
          "iris": "brown",
          "ring": null
        },
        "legs": {
          "colour": "yellow"
        },
        "head": {
          "crown": "green",
          "face": "white",
          "throat": [
            "blue",
            "white"
          ]
        },
        "upperparts": {
          "back": "rufous",
          "rump": null
        },
        "underparts": {
          "breast": [
            "blue",
            "white"
          ],
          "belly": [
            "blue",
            "white"
          ]
        },
        "wings": {
          "above": [
            "purple",
            "blue"
          ],
          "below": [
            "blue",
            "purple",
            "black"
          ]
        },
        "tail": {
          "colour": "blue",
          "shape": "outer feathers elongated, with paddle-shaped tips"
        }
      }
    },
    {
      "age": "juvenile",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "marks": {
        "bill": {
          "colour": null,
          "shape": null
        },
        "eye": {
          "iris": null,
          "ring": null
        },
        "legs": {
          "colour": null
        },
        "head": {
          "crown": null,
          "face": "lilac",
          "throat": null
        },
        "upperparts": {
          "back": "brown",
          "rump": null
        },
        "underparts": {
          "breast": [
            "blue",
            "lilac"
          ],
          "belly": null
        },
        "wings": {
          "above": "blue",
          "below": null
        },
        "tail": {
          "colour": null,
          "shape": "no elongated racket tips"
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "viewNotes": [
    {
      "view": "flight-above",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "Purple upperwing with an azure-blue stripe, a rufous back, and paddle-tipped outer tail feathers."
    },
    {
      "view": "flight-below",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "Pale blue underwing with a purplish-black trailing edge and tip."
    },
    {
      "view": "perched-front",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "White forehead and eyebrow, and pale blue underparts with whitish streaking."
    },
    {
      "view": "perched-back",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "Rufous back and a blue tail whose outer feathers end in paddles."
    },
    {
      "view": "perched-side",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "Dull green crown, white eyebrow, rufous back, pale blue underparts, and the racket-tipped tail."
    },
    {
      "view": "perched-side",
      "age": "juvenile",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "note": "Browner upperparts, more lilac on the cheeks and the sides of the breast, and no racket tips."
    }
  ],
  "calls": [
    {
      "sex": "any",
      "type": "call",
      "description": "A harsh guttural shriek, uttered as it swoops; the sexes are not given different calls.",
      "recordings": [
        {
          "key": "xeno-canto/XC660428",
          "source": "https://xeno-canto.org/660428",
          "fileUrl": "https://xeno-canto.org/sounds/uploaded/IWRJOXRUFI/XC660428-150922_0833.mp3",
          "author": "Stephen Lowe",
          "license": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "licenceUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/",
          "aiGenerated": false,
          "hosted": false
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "images": [
    {
      "key": "coracias-spatulatus/perched-front.jpg",
      "view": "perched-front",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "source": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Racquet-tailed_Roller.jpg",
      "fileUrl": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Racquet-tailed_Roller.jpg/1280px-Racquet-tailed_Roller.jpg",
      "author": "Ltshears",
      "license": "CC BY-SA 3.0",
      "licenceUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/",
      "aiGenerated": false,
      "hosted": false,
      "alt": "Adult Racket-tailed Roller facing the camera, with a white eyebrow and pale blue breast"
    },
    {
      "key": "coracias-spatulatus/perched-side.jpg",
      "view": "perched-side",
      "age": "adult",
      "sex": "any",
      "season": "any",
      "source": "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coracias_spatulatus,_southern_Mozambique_1.jpg",
      "fileUrl": "https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/73/Coracias_spatulatus%2C_southern_Mozambique_1.jpg/1280px-Coracias_spatulatus%2C_southern_Mozambique_1.jpg",
      "author": "Brian Ralphs",
      "license": "CC BY 2.0",
      "licenceUrl": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/",
      "aiGenerated": false,
      "hosted": false,
      "alt": "Racket-tailed Roller perched side-on in woodland in southern Mozambique"
    }
  ]
}