For a number of days, we have watching a flash of turquoise swooping into the trees by the volleyball court. It was too big to be a kingfisher and there was no cackling scream, so we searched the bird books, and identified it as a roller. The bird had probably been attracted to the rich pickings of insects and small reptiles on the cleared land. In addition, there had been too much debris from our prunings of the garden’s trees and shrubs for the passing goats to eat, so Pandi had been burning it off. This had probably attracted the bird.
The roller is frequently seen swooping beside the road when we go into Dindigul.