Eurystomus orientalis
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~20% in a week ~30%
The Oriental dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) is a bird of the roller family, so named because of the distinctive pale blue or white, coin-shaped spots on its wings. It can be found from Australia to Korea, Japan and India.
The Oriental dollarbird was formally described by the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus in 1766 in the twelfth edition of his Systema Naturae under the binomial name Coracias orientalis. Linnaeus based his description on "Le Rollier des Indes" that had been described and illustrated by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760. The type locality is the island of Java in Indonesia. The Oriental dollarbird 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 azure dollarbird (Eurystomus azureus) was nested in a clade containing subspecies of the Oriental dollarbird. Formerly, some authorities have also considered the broad-billed roller and the azure dollarbird to have been subspecies of the oriental dollarbird. The generic name derives from Ancient Greek eurustomos 'wide-mouthed' and the specific epithet is Latin... Wikipedia →
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 2 | Daejeon | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 3 | Johor Bahru | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 4 | Seoul | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 5 | Kuala Lumpur | 🇲🇾 Malaysia | |
| 6 | Hangzhou | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 7 | Brisbane | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 8 | Gwangju | 🇰🇷 South Korea | |
| 9 | Nanjing | 🇨🇳 China | |
| 10 | Sydney | 🇦🇺 Australia |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | Taronga Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 4 | Sydney Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia | |
| 5 | Adelaide Zoo | 🇦🇺 Australia |
With luck
About 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dollarbird sighting in Brisbane on a given day, based on 836 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 104th most-seen of the 237 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 20%, and over a week to about 30%, if each day is a fresh chance.
October to March
In those months about 10% of wildlife watchers report a Dollarbird in Brisbane on a given day, against under 5% in April to September, the lowest months.
Between 9 am and noon
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Dollarbird sightings with a recorded time, and about 9 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
7th of 20
Of the 20 cities where we can rate Dollarbird sightings, Brisbane ranks 7th at about 10%. The best odds are in Singapore (Singapore, about 20%), Daejeon (South Korea, about 20%) and Johor Bahru (Malaysia, about 20%).
Same order: Coraciiformes
The closest relatives of the Dollarbird that you can see in Brisbane (order Coraciiformes, Rollers, Kingfishers, and Allies) are Laughing Kookaburra (about 60%), Sacred Kingfisher (about 40%) and Rainbow Bee-eater (about 30%), with each one's daily chance of a sighting.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Dollarbird is recorded against all the birds logged in Brisbane (836 verified sightings), 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.
