The Oriental Roller is a breed

Breed

A breed is a group of domestic animals or plants with a homogeneous appearance, behavior, and other characteristics that distinguish it from other animals or plants of the same species. Despite the centrality of the idea of "breeds" to animal husbandry, there is no scientifically accepted...

 of fancy pigeon developed over many years of selective breeding

Selective breeding

Selective breeding is the process of breeding plants and animals for particular genetic traits. Typically, strains that are selectively bred are domesticated, and the breeding is sometimes done by a professional breeder. Bred animals are known as breeds, while bred plants are known as varieties,...

. Oriental Rollers, along with other varieties of domesticated pigeons

Domestic Pigeon

The Domestic Pigeon was derived from the Rock Pigeon. The Rock Pigeon is the world's oldest domesticated bird. Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets mention the domestication of pigeons more than 5,000 years ago, as do Egyptian hieroglyphics.Research suggests that domestication of pigeons was as early as...

 are all descendants from the Rock Pigeon

Rock Pigeon

The Rock Dove or Rock Pigeon, is a member of the bird family Columbidae . In common usage, this bird is often simply referred to as the "pigeon"....

(Columba livia).

Flying style

The most important hallmark of the Oriental Roller is its flying style. They show a variety of different figures in the air, which are single sommersaults, double sommersaults, rolling (a number of uncountable sommersaults), rotation with open wings, nose dives, sudden change of direction during flight and very rarely axial turns. Some breeds fly up to 1000 m high, others stay in the air for several hours.