Lilac in the thorns

We had noticed this roller coming back to the same rock over and over, each time with prey in its beak, so we positioned ourselves and waited for the next return. When it landed, it tossed the beetle upward to line it up head-first, and for a single frame the catch hung suspended above its open bill. The lilac-breasted roller is a common sight across these grasslands, but a bird this color never stops feeling like a gift, and the open savanna it hunts is what keeps it here.