Eurystomus orientalis
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~30% in a week ~60%
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 Kuala Lumpur on a given day, based on 251 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data. It is the 62nd most-seen of the 228 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 30%, and over a week to about 60%, if each day is a fresh chance.
November
In that month about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Dollarbird in Kuala Lumpur on a given day, against under 5% in July, the lowest month. That is one of Kuala Lumpur's wettest months, with about 310 mm of rain against 160 mm in June.
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.
5th of 20
Of the 20 cities where we can rate Dollarbird sightings, Kuala Lumpur ranks 5th 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 Kuala Lumpur (order Coraciiformes, Rollers, Kingfishers, and Allies) are White-throated Kingfisher (about 50%), Blue-throated Bee-eater (about 30%) and Blue-tailed 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 Kuala Lumpur (251 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.
