Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus) [XC745582]
by Peter Boesman from Kasanka National Park, Zambia (call)
Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus glaucurus) [XC70405]
by Lynette Rudman from Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa (call)
Subspecies
Has been treated as forming a superspecies with Blue-throated Roller (Eurystomus gularis), the two being very similar in morphology and behaviour. Subspecies suahelicus intergrades with afer and aethiopicus in north of its range. Subspecies aethiopicus sometimes merged with afer or split between that subspecies and suahelicus. Birds from central and southern Uganda sometimes separated as rufobuccalis. Populations from Angola to Mozambique and Natal, averaging slightly shorter-winged than suahelicus, sometimes separated as pulcherrimus.
The following 4 subspecies are recognised:
afer (Latham, 1790) - Senegal east to central Sudan, south to Cabinda (northern Angola) and western Kenya.
aethiopicus Neumann, 1905 - South-eastern Sudan, Ethiopia, north-eastern Uganda and north-western Kenya.
suahelicus Neumann, 1905 - Southern Somalia south to Angola, Botswana, eastern Transvaal and Zululand; Zanzibar and Pemba.
glaucurus (Müller, 1776) - Madagascar; migrates to eastern and east-central Africa.
BirdLife International Species Factsheet