Coracias cyanogaster
Silhouette: Ferran Sayol · PhyloPic
In 3 days ~50% in a week ~80%
The blue-bellied roller (Coracias cyanogaster) is a member of the roller family of birds which breeds across Africa in a narrow belt from Senegal to northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is resident, apart from some local seasonal movements, in mature moist savannah dominated by Isoberlinia trees.
The blue-bellied roller was given the binomial name Coracias cyanogaster in 1816 by the French naturalist Georges Cuvier based on "Le Rollier à ventre bleu" that had been described and illustrated by François Levaillant in 1806. The specific epithet combines the Ancient Greek kuanos meaning "dark-blue" with gastēr meaning "belly". Levaillant mistaken believed that the specimen had been collected on the island of Java. The species is resident in West-Africa and the type location was later designated as Senegal. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised.
The phylogenetic relationships among the Coracias species are shown below, from the molecular study by Johansson et al. (2018) The blue-bellied roller is a large bird, nearly the size of a jackdaw at 28–30 cm (11–12 in). It has a very dark brown back, buffy or chalky white head, neck and... Wikipedia →
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niokolo-Koba National Park | 🇸🇳 Senegal |
More parks will be added in future updates.
| # | City | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Serrekunda | 🇬🇲 Gambia | |
| 2 | Abuja | 🇳🇬 Nigeria | |
| 3 | Accra | 🇬🇭 Ghana | |
| 4 | Kolkata | 🇮🇳 India |
| # | Zoo / Centre | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Disney's Animal Kingdom | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 2 | SeaWorld Orlando | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 3 | San Diego Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 4 | ZooParc de Beauval | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 5 | North Carolina Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 6 | Dvůr Králové Zoo | 🇨🇿 Czechia | |
| 7 | Réserve africaine de Sigean | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 8 | Parc des oiseaux | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 9 | Abilene Zoological Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 10 | Zoo Miami | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 11 | San Diego Zoo Safari Park | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 12 | Toronto Zoo | 🇨🇦 Canada | |
| 13 | Columbus Zoo and Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 14 | Kansas City Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 15 | Nashville Zoo at Grassmere | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 16 | Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 17 | Oakland Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 18 | The Maryland Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 19 | Toledo Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 20 | Detroit Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 21 | Jacksonville Zoo and Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 22 | Central Florida Zoo and Botanical Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 23 | Audubon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 24 | Saint Louis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 25 | Berlin Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 26 | Caldwell Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 27 | Woodland Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 28 | Wrocław Zoological Garden | 🇵🇱 Poland | |
| 29 | San Francisco Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 30 | Moody Gardens | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 31 | Franklin Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 32 | ZooTampa | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 33 | Fort Worth Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 34 | Indianapolis Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 35 | Oregon Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 36 | Wilhelma | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 37 | Houston Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 38 | San Antonio Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 39 | Cameron Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 40 | Cologne Zoological Garden | 🇩🇪 Germany | |
| 41 | Philadelphia Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 42 | Attica Zoological Park | 🇬🇷 Greece | |
| 43 | London Zoo | 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | |
| 44 | Bird Paradise | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 45 | Cleres Zoological Park | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 46 | Lincoln Park Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 47 | Rainforest Wild Asia | 🇸🇬 Singapore | |
| 48 | Biotropica | 🇫🇷 France | |
| 49 | Gladys Porter Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States | |
| 50 | The Abilene Zoo | 🇺🇸 United States |
Possible
About 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-bellied Roller sighting in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, based on 74 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. It is the 95th most-seen of the 215 birds we can rate there. Over three days the chance rises to about 50%, and over a week to about 80%, if each day is a fresh chance.
August and November–February
In those months about 20% of wildlife watchers report a Blue-bellied Roller in Niokolo-Koba National Park on a given day, against about 10% in March–April and September, the lowest months. May–July and October have too few records to rate.
Between 10 am and 1 pm
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Blue-bellied Roller sightings with a recorded time, and about 8 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is a daytime animal.
Only Niokolo-Koba National Park, in our data
Niokolo-Koba National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Blue-bellied Roller sightings: about 20% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Blue-bellied Roller is recorded against all the birds logged in Niokolo-Koba National Park (74 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.
