I just finished up work on the last of my updates (Songbird ReMix Africa, C&U birds v1, European Edition v2 and Woodpeckers) and uploaded the beta to my testers, so there will be at least 4 updates coming next month. Today's image was inspired by the one of the centerpieces from my updated (from 2004) Songbird Remix Africa, the flashy Lilac-breasted Roller. It will be the new cover art for the updated set. I'm sometimes asked if I have a favorite birds in a set, and yup... This is one of them. One thing that's kind of cool is that you can actually see the difference between the new and old rollers because it was the main promo art in the old version (shown below under product credits). It is endemic to Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Southern Congo Zaire, Southeastern Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Nambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and North Zaire. It prefers the acacia woodland with well-spaced trees, pure grassland (where it uses any elevated perch), the rolling bushy game lands, light forests, riverside woods, and cultivated lands. It stays clear of human habitation. Their diet includes locusts, grasshoppers (including the noxious Phymateus viridipes), crickets, beetles, butterflies, moths, hairy caterpillars, ants, scorpions , centipedes, spiders, snails, frogs, lizards and small birds. It is a slim roller with streamered tail. It is a bold and confidant bird. They often swoop down on to prey from high perches. They are acrobatic fliers often rolling to the right or left 4 to 5 times with tucked wings within a couple seconds at a very fast speed, hence the name “Rollers”. Light and temperature make the feather colors of this bird from brighter or duller, depending on the weather. Rollers will often lay on ant nests, allowing ants to cover its’ body. The ants remove parasites and scales from it’s’ feathers. This is called “anting”. Rendered in Iray without post work. Apart from my birds (lilac-breasted roller and Purple-crested Turaco from SBRM Africa), the other model(s) is AM's Jungle River bundle with some minor alterations.