Finding Rory the Roller

By John Fuller, Lewis Kihumba and Giliane Okana

“I’m thrilled to share the unbelievable news – Professor Ma and his dedicated team have found Rory!”

As opening lines to an email read, few can be more exciting than the above … even out of context. Immediately, questions arise: Who is Rory? Where was he? And why did he need to be found? So begins the extraordinary tale of a bright blue bird’s migration from the southern tip of Africa to remote China, and how such incredible journeys connect countries, continents and cultures.

Rory is a European Roller, a species that has disappeared from areas of its breeding range, mainly due to habitat loss, hunting and reduced food availability. They are skilled aerial hunters, catching large insects such as grasshoppers in mid-flight. As long-distance migrants, European Rollers winter in Africa before travelling into Europe and Asia to breed.

In April 2025, Rory was found in a private protected area of Limpopo in South Africa: the Thornybush Nature Reserve. He was fitted with a satellite tracker by our Partner BirdLife South Africa’s staff and christened by long-time BirdLife supporter and member of our Advisory Group, the late Pamela Isdell. The next time Rory was positively identified, he was in China being watched by a team led by Professor Ma Ming, a zoologist based at the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Maximum Effort

Finding Rory was no mean feat. Tracking data points gave a close match for his whereabouts but contained an error margin that meant the team had to be extremely strategic with their efforts. With heavy rain lashing down, they ventured to the northern slopes of the Tian Shan Mountains, on the south-western edge of the Gurbantünggüt Desert. They spent three days searching this remote area intently, spending their evenings planning their next steps and barely sleeping as a result.

Their perseverance paid off when Professor Ma photographed Rory near a nest in late June. Two peak foraging periods were observed in the morning and evening, where Rory appeared to be feeding chicks with grasshoppers. The fact that Rory had bred confirmed that he was an adult bird – he was known to be a male from analysis of a blood sample taken when fitting his tracker.

Comparing photographs from Rory in South Africa with those taken in China revealed that his feathers had become darker over time. Jessica Wilmot, who manages the Flyway and Migrants Project at BirdLife South Africa, reflected on what Rory’s journey represents: “It was surreal receiving photos of Rory – thousands of kilometres from where we first encountered him in South Africa. It is a testament to what a flyway conservation approach can achieve. Professor Ma’s enthusiasm to collaborate has opened the door for impactful conservation efforts across continents.”

It was the need to breed that drove Rory to fly more than 15,000 kilometres. From South Africa, he passed through more than 10 countries, including Mozambique, Tanzania, Kenya, Somalia, Oman, Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and China. It is only through tracking his journey that we know where Rory and other European Rollers go – for example, all the rollers travelling from South Africa seem to spend three to four weeks in south-eastern Somalia.

Rory was no different, and he also spent a week in south-eastern Iran and a fortnight on the Iran-Pakistan border along the way. As Rory’s is the first journey we have tracked from South Africa to China, these stopovers provide us with important information about where these birds go and why and what threats they face while there.

But not only do we learn about migration, we see how birds connect us. Researchers at opposite ends of the African-Eurasian Flyway were brought together by a single bird and his incredible migration. Countless others may have seen him or his species traversing the length of Africa and beyond, all heading to their breeding grounds. The power of migration and the flyways is not just in the wonder of birds and animals undertaking huge journeys, but the way they can show us connectivity and togetherness. That’s why we connect Partners across the Global Flyways, working from a local-to-global scale to conserve birds and all life, everywhere.

So, what’s next for Rory the Roller? Worryingly, Professor Ma indicated a pest outbreak in the region’s cotton plantations – while drones were being used to control these insects, the use of pesticides poses a serious threat to nesting birds and their chicks. Whether or not he managed to fledge young successfully, Rory will now be making his way back south, returning to South Africa to complete his amazing journey.

Watch this space for where he is headed next …

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