Ground Rollers

Ground rollers are a unique family of birds known as Brachypteraciidae, endemic to Madagascar and related to kingfishers, bee-eaters, and rollers. These crow-sized birds range from 25 to 49 centimeters in length and mainly hunt reptiles and insects. Unlike their brightly colored relatives, ground rollers have more subdued, striped, or flecked plumage and are very elusive, often detected only by their breeding calls in the Malagasy forests. They are well-adapted to a terrestrial lifestyle, with longer legs and shorter wings, and they nest in solitary pairs, excavating their own holes in the ground, which is unusual compared to other rollers. Genetic studies have fine-tuned the classification within this group, with no evidence they lived outside Madagascar. The family consists of six species across four genera, including the Brachypteracias (Short-legged ground roller and possibly an extinct species), Geobiastes (Scaly ground roller), Uratelornis (Long-tailed ground roller), and Atelornis (Pitta-like ground roller and Rufous-headed ground roller).