Indochinese Roller

Indochinese Roller

Coracias affinis

Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic

LCLeast ConcernNTVUENCR
Daily sighting probability ~70% · Very likely
at Kaziranga National Park

In 3 days >90%

1,683 Verified sightings at Kaziranga National Park From 2019 to 2026
5,335 In all 10 parks
March Best month
🌅 Crepuscular When it's spotted

About the Indochinese Roller

The Indochinese roller (Coracias affinis) or Burmese roller, is a member of the roller bird family. It occurs widely from Nepal, eastern India to Myanmar and Southeast Asia. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.

The Indochinese roller was formally described in 1840 by the American naturalist Thomas Horsfield under the binomial name Coracias affinis based on specimens that had been collected in Assam by the naturalist John McClelland. The specific epithet affinis is from Latin adfinis or affinis meaning "related" or "allied".

McClelland has sometimes been credited as the authority but under the rules of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature Horsfield now receives the credit. The Indochinese roller was formerly considered as a subspecies of the Indian roller because of a narrow hybrid zone in northeast India but a molecular phylogenetic study published in 2018 found that the Indochinese roller was more closely related to the purple-winged roller (Coracias temminckii) than it is to the Indian roller. The Indochinese roller is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.

The phylogenetic relationships among the Coracias species are shown below, from... Wikipedia →

Sounds

Flight call0:20

Thailand · 2026

© Ding Li Yong · XC1073527 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Call0:14

Malaysia · 2026

© Lim Ying Hien 林勇贤 · XC1071406 · CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Song0:46

Thailand · 2020

© Peter Ericsson · XC611151 · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Global Distribution

Parks Where Found

# Park Country Daily sighting probability
1 Kaziranga National Park 🇮🇳 India
~70%
2 Kaeng Krachan National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~50%
3 Manas National Park 🇮🇳 India
~40%
4 Cat Tien National Park 🇻🇳 Vietnam
~30%
5 Doi Inthanon National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~10%
6 Khao Yai National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
~10%
7 Royal Manas National Park 🇧🇹 Bhutan
~10%
8 Khao Luang National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
<5%
9 Khao Sok National Park 🇹🇭 Thailand
<5%
10 Namdapha National Park 🇮🇳 India
<5%

Cities Where Found

# City Country Daily sighting probability
1 Bangkok 🇹🇭 Thailand
~40%
2 Yangon 🇲🇲 Myanmar
~40%
3 Phnom Penh 🇰🇭 Cambodia
~10%
4 Guwahati 🇮🇳 India
~10%
5 Kolkata 🇮🇳 India
<5%

Before you go

What are the chances of seeing an Indochinese Roller in Kaziranga National Park?

Very likely

About 70% of wildlife watchers report an Indochinese Roller sighting in Kaziranga National Park on a given day, based on 1,683 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 8th most-seen of the 323 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.

When is the best time to see an Indochinese Roller in Kaziranga National Park?

March and November

In those months about 80% of wildlife watchers report an Indochinese Roller in Kaziranga National Park on a given day, against about 60% in January and September, the lowest months. Those are among Kaziranga National Park's driest months, with about 55 mm of rain a month against 520 mm in June. June and July have too few records to rate.

What time of day is best to see an Indochinese Roller?

Between 3 and 6 am

Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Indochinese Roller sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.

Is Kaziranga National Park the best place to see an Indochinese Roller?

Yes

Of the 10 parks where we can rate Indochinese Roller sightings, Kaziranga National Park has the highest daily chance: about 70%. Next come Kaeng Krachan National Park (Thailand, about 50%) and Manas National Park (India, about 40%). All parks ranked.

Where does the Indochinese Roller sighting chance come from?

GBIF citizen-science records

It is estimated from how often the Indochinese Roller is recorded against all the birds logged in Kaziranga National Park (1,683 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.

← Back to Kaziranga National Park