Lilac-breasted Roller

 

Today’s blog begins our trip through East Africa. We spent 19 days with just us and an absolutely terrific guide, Albert, camping at waterholes and riverbanks through Samburu National Preserve, the Laikipia Plateau, Lake Naivasha and Masai Mara National Reserve in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya. Then dropped down into Serengeti National Park and Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania before returning to Ambroseli National Park in Kenya.

Our trip started with a bang, or I should say fire, as the arrival terminal at Nairobi International Airport burned to the ground two weeks before our arrival. Consequently, we were told not to bring any checked luggage so with my carry-on being my camera gear, we lived out of one carry-on backpack for the whole trip.

Our first stop was Samburu National Preserve where we stayed at Ashnil Samburu tent Camp on the Ewaso Ng’iro River.

One of the first birds we observed was the Lilac-breasted Roller.

The Lilac-breasted Roller is a chunky, large-headed bird with a lilac breast, rusty cheeks, and spring-green crown.

They sit on prominent perches in open woodland and lightly-treed grasslands. It has an amazing display flight which includes side-to-side rolling, which gives rollers their name.