Coracias

9, see text Coracias is a genus of the rollers, an Old World family of near passerine birds related to the kingfishers and bee-eaters.

The genus Coracias was introduced in 1758 by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae.

[5] The type species was designated as the European roller (Coracias garrulus) by George Robert Gray in 1855.

A wide range of terrestrial invertebrates, and small vertebrates such as frogs, lizards rodents and young birds, are taken.

Their prey includes items avoided by many other birds, such as hairy caterpillars, insects with warning colouration and snakes.