Reader photo of the day: A lilac-breasted roller on the hunt in Africa

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Submitter Alan shares his vivid photo of the most colorful bird we’d ever seen (and that’s including peafowl), taken in Botswana. The bird is a lilac-breasted roller, a species commonly found in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of the Middle East.

Lilac-breasted rollers are known to perch high in trees or atop telephone poles and other similarly high places in order to scope out their favored foods, which can include everything from small insects to reptiles to other birds.

Think your animal photo should be our reader photo of the day? Show us by submitting it to the Pets & Animals category of Your Scene, The Times’ photo-sharing site. Just select the appropriate album (for instance, Alan submitted his photo to the Birds of a Feather album), click the ‘submit’ link at the top of the page, choose your photo (.jpg format) and include a caption that tells us a little about your subject matter.

-- Lindsay Barnett