Thanks to all of you have responded so quickly. The majority response seems
to be Lilac-breasted Roller, although several people have commented that the
colors are not quite right, and a couple of people have commented on the tail
not being right. One person suggested Blue-bellied Roller because of these
discrepancies. I don't have any African field guides to check.
As to why it is presented on a Virginia homeowners' association web site, I
don't know. My husband and I write a quarterly birding column for their
newsletter, the editors chose to add the images. The other image is a
cardinal, which is entirely appropriate. There are also a number of small
images at the top of the page - Wood Duck, Goldfinch, some kind of raptor and
Yellow-headed Blackbird. My guess is they were looking for bird pictures and
thought the roller was a pretty bird without realizing that it wasn't close
to being native.
Wendy
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
