Lilac-breasted Roller

© Mark Drysdale

Lilac-breasted Roller

The reason the Roller is called a Troupant in Afrikaans is that it's a corruption of the word: Trouband, or in English: Wedding Ring.
The story goes that young men wanting to get married will harvest the sticky gum from the Leadwood tree (Combretum imberbe), for example. They will find an appropriate dead branch, where Roller's often sit, and will place a "bolletjie" or wad of this gum on the branch. When next a Roller sits on the branch his feet get stuck and he is effectively trapped. The man then catches the Roller. He will remove a stunning blue feather from the bird. This feather is then offered to the bride-to-be and is wrapped around her finger. The blue from the feather will stain her finger. Mark Drysdale

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