WHEN YOU
LOOK
Western Bluebird
The European Roller
When you look at this European Roller, you see a hopeful example.
This is the range of the European Roller. The areas marked in yellow are breeding areas, those marked in blue are non-breeding wintering grounds, those marked in teal are areas of passage, and those marked in pink are places where the species is believed to be regionally extinct.
Species and Status
The European Roller (Coracias garrulus garrulus) is a migratory bird that is native to Europe. Despite being the only member of the Roller family that breeds in Europe, it is extinct in Germany, Sweden, and Estonia, with the number of mature (i.e. breeding) individuals clocking in somewhere around 188,000-395,000 birds. European Rollers have endured extreme population decline, as about 25% of the species’ population was lost between 1990 and 2000. As such, it came as little surprise when the UN Red List bumped the species from Lower Risk/Least Concern to Near Threatened in 2004. However, after intensive conservation efforts were made in select breeding areas (Hungary, France, etc.), it went from Near Threatened back to Least Concern in 2015. We continue to see a population decline of around ~5-20% across three generations (15 years), but this level of loss, though not ideal, is manageable and recoverable for the species.
Adaptability and Conservation
Various studies on the breeding habits of the European Roller have found that the bird can thrive outside of its natural habitats, including in industrialized and agricultural contexts with the provision of nesting boxes, with one study even finding that the opportunity to utilize nesting boxes lead to a gradual population recover of over 50% within the region studied. Despite the extraordinary adaptability of this species, the continual success of the European Roller will depend on continued and concerted efforts made in multiple conservation avenues, as protection and provision of things like shelter is rendered wasted effort when the species has nothing to eat and vice versa. Efforts like nestbox installment, conservation and protection of foraging grounds, and planting and protecting isolated stands of trees are all equally vital steps in the conservation of the European Roller.
A European Roller mid-call. When first identified and classified in Carolus Linnaeus’s Taxonomy in the 1750s, it was said to have a “chatter of silver” and, indeed, the part of the name ‘garrulus’ that is the species’ namesake means ‘chattering’ in Latin.
A Hopeful Example
With existing conservation efforts, including placing the species under national protection, Hungary, Bulgaria, Spain, and France have all reported national population recoveries in recent years, with Hungary seeing an especially dramatic change in European Roller populations between the 1990s (when there were estimated only 150-300 pairs left in the country) and 2014 (when the population reached and held stable at around 1300 to 1500 pairs). Moreover, awareness of the plight of the European Rollers has slowly spread across national borders, so much so that in 2017, the UNEP formally adopted the Flyway Action Plan--a document that both acknowledges the fragility of the species and pledges its members to its protection. In this way, the European Roller serves as a hopeful example as the species has proved the possibility of saving a species that is close to endangerment, and if we can apply similar efforts to other Near Threatened, Threatened, Endangered, or Near Extinct species, then perhaps we can replicate this success and help mitigate the consequences of our changing climate.