Eurystomus glaucurus
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~40%
The broad-billed roller (Eurystomus glaucurus) is a member of the roller family of birds which breeds across tropical Africa and Madagascar in all but the driest regions. It is a wet season breeder, which migrates from the northern and southern areas of its range towards the moister equatorial belt in the dry season.
The broad-billed roller was formally described in 1776 by the German zoologist Philipp Ludwig Statius Müller under the binomial name Coracias glaucurus. The specific epithet is from Ancient Greek glaukos meaning "blue-grey". Statius Müller based his brief description on "Le Rollier de Madagascar" that had been described in 1775 by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon and illustrated by Edme-Louis Daubenton. The type locality is Madagascar. The broad-billed roller is now placed in the genus Eurystomus that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot. A molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that the broad-billed roller was most closely related to the blue-throated roller (Eurystomus gularis). Alternate names for the broad-billed roller include the African broad-billed roller and the cinnamon... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kampala | 🇺🇬 Uganda | |
| 2 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 3 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 4 | Lagos | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 5 | Cotonou | 🇧🇯 Benin | |
| 6 | Zanzibar City | 🇹🇿 Tanzania | |
| 7 | Ouagadougou | 🇧🇫 Burkina Faso | |
| 8 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 9 | Lomé | 🇹🇬 Togo | |
| 10 | Monrovia | 🇱🇷 Liberia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Broad-billed Roller sighting in Chobe National Park on a given day, based on 116 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 138th most-seen of the 373 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 40%, if each day is a fresh chance.
December
In that month about 30% of wildlife watchers report a Broad-billed Roller in Chobe National Park on a given day, against under 5% in April to September, the lowest months. That is one of Chobe National Park's wettest months, with about 95 mm of rain against almost none in May.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Broad-billed Roller sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
22nd of 37
Of the 37 parks where we can rate Broad-billed Roller sightings, Chobe National Park ranks 22nd at about 10%. The best odds are in Ankarafantsika National Park (Madagascar, about 70%), Niokolo-Koba National Park (Senegal, about 60%) and Lake Mburo National Park (Uganda, about 40%). All parks ranked.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Broad-billed Roller is recorded against all the birds logged in Chobe National Park (116 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
