The European roller was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1758 in the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae under its current the binomial name Coracias garrulus.

[3] The generic name derives from Greek korakias referring to a type of corvid, perhaps the red-billed chough.

The nominate subspecies breeds in northern Africa from Morocco to Tunisia, in southern and east-central Europe, and eastwards through northwestern Iran to southwestern Siberia.

The European range was formerly more extensive, but there has been a long-term decline in the north and west, with extinction as a nesting bird in Sweden and Germany.

[12] It winters primarily in dry, wooded savanna and bushy plains, where it typically nests in tree holes.

Individuals from south-west European populations migrate to Angola, Namibia and Botswana; French and north Spanish birds take a direct southerly route across the Sahara, while Portuguese and south Spanish birds take a more westerly route around the west African coast.

The Sahel savannah region immediately south of the Sahara Desert, particularly the area around Lake Chad, appears to be important for European rollers from many populations as an autumn re-fuelling site, and Latvian and other north and north-eastern populations migrate northwards via the Arabian Peninsula in spring.

[23] Rollers often perch prominently on trees, posts or overhead wires, like giant shrikes, whilst watching for the large insects, small reptiles, rodents and frogs that they eat.

The diet of adult rollers is dominated by beetles, whereas nestlings mostly eat Orthoptera, such as grasshoppers and bush crickets.

[25] The maximum age recorded from ring-recovery data is 9 years and 2 months for a bird shot in Poland.

[27] The Eurasian roller has an extensive distribution in Europe and western Asia, and its European breeding population is estimated at 159,000 to 330,000 birds.

[1][28] Threats include hunting while on migration around the Mediterranean, and large numbers, possibly in the thousands, are killed for food in Oman.

Agricultural practices have led to the loss of trees and hedges which provide potential nest sites and perches for hunting, and pesticides have reduced the availability of insect food.