I am always on the look out for reference material  for animals and their behaviour for my designs and paintings.  It can be such a distracting task with all the wonderful things to see on the internet!   Having stumbled upon this picture I could not resist but reblog it.  The photograph of this bird is stunning. It is a lilac breasted roller bird and the link takes you an article about the photograph by Dr Merrigan aged 75 years old.  Click the image or the link below.

Bird photograph featured in the Telegraph in 2009.