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This bird is part of the rollar family and is VERY rare!

In SA you can find it up in the Pafuri area and up into Mozambique and Zimbabwe. It is one of my bogey birds and i have dipped on it one before.

It is a none migratory birds and sticks with us throught our seasons.

It is distinguished from Lilac Breasted rollar by the two knobs on the end of its tail. and also it does not have the lilac breast.

Anyone seen it in KNP ?????
Got any photo's ?????

Definately a BOGEY bird for me!

Not in KNP But Zimbabwe, yes!!!

Yep, in the Makuleke CNP (between the Limpopo and Luvuvhu).

Roberts Bird Guide KNP and adjacent Lowveld describes the habitat as "well developed woodland with little or no understorey".

In my experience, it is most commonly seen in the large dense stands of tall Northern Lala Palm (Hyphaene petersiana) and adjacent vleis on alluvial soils bordering the Limpopo River.

The Plains Camp 2008 Monthly Bird Monitoring sheet records Racket-tailed rollers in all months except January, February and March.

Johan

Thanks for the info Johan

Hi guys,

I've recently returned from a few weeks spent in the Makuleke Concession of KNP. We were lucky enough to see a family of 4 racket tailed rollers for a few days in succession.

As Johan says, every time they were seen in the fever tree forrests on the fringe of the limpopo floodplain. Apparently they're nesting in an old dead lala palm tree. Was a lifer tick for me.....

A short distance from here, we saw Meve's Starlings feeding Great Spotted Cuckoo juveniles almost daily. Awesome indeed

cheers

Got 1 on the Mahonieloop (S99) this week - lifer for me! Seen on the first bend of the loop as you go anti-clockwise around the loop. The bird flew into the Terminalia sp. trees in the morning. It has been reported on the Mahonieloop in Sept/Oct 2008 as well as Dec 2008, but alas the most reliable place to look for them is in the Makuleke concession.

Happy birding

Congratulations Betelgeuse A wonderful bird to see!! Especially with in South Africa.....Found mine in Zimbabwe.

I am so green su

well done

Sorry guys but i have gone a little bit blanck here....Where in Kruger is the makuleke conscesion???

It is the area north of the Luvuvhu river BM.

Ok thanks johann

Any recent sightings?????

A colleague of mine has seen it about a month or so ago in the Pafuri region, but the again he works in Kruger and it was during a two week field excursion taking samples for anthrax research and he only saw them once.

Has been a boggy bird for me even when Dr Ian Whyte took us to the most likely spot where they were seen days before the 2007 Birding Day.

I saw a pair on the Mahoni loop at Punda some two weeks ago. They sat in a tree right next to the road for quite a while.