Dollarbird
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| Adult | |
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E. orientalis
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| Binomial name | |
| Eurystomus orientalis Linnaeus, 1766
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| Distribution of the dollarbird | |
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The dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis), also known as the Oriental dollarbird or dollar roller, is a bird of the roller family, so named because of the distinctive blue coin-shaped spots on its wings. It can be found in south-west Pacific and east Asia from northern Australia to the Japan archipelago and India.
Contents
Description
It has a length of up to 30 cm. It is basically dark brown but this is heavily washed with a bluish-green sheen on the back and wing coverts. Its belly and undertail coverts are light coloured, and it has glossy bright blue colouring on its throat and undertail. Its flight feathers are a darker blue. Its bill is short and wide and in mature animals is coloured orange-red with a black tip. It has very light blue patches on the outer parts of its wings which are highly visible in flight and for which it is named. The females are slightly duller than the males but the two are overall very similar. Immature birds are much duller than the adults and do not have the blue colouring on their throats. They also have brown bills and feet instead of the red of the adults.[2]
Range and habits
It is most commonly seen as a single bird with a distinctive upright silhouette on a bare branch high in a tree, from which it hawks for insects, returning to the same perch after a few seconds.
The birds breed in northern and eastern Australia between the months of September and March or April. The birds prefer open wooded areas with hollow-bearing trees to build nests in. They spend winters in New Guinea and nearby islands.[3]
Various views and plumages
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Dollarbird or Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus orientalis) at Jayanti, Duars, West Bengal W Picture 060.jpg
at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
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Dollarbird or Broad-billed Roller (Eurystomus orientalis) at Jayanti, Duars, West Bengal W Picture 059.jpg
at Jayanti in Buxa Tiger Reserve in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal, India.
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Eurystomus orientalis -Miami Metrozoo, USA -singing-8a.jpg
Singing at Miami MetroZoo, USA
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Eurystomus-orientalis
- ↑ http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Eurystomus-orientalis
External links
Media related to Eurystomus orientalis at Wikimedia Commons
- Pages with broken file links
- IUCN Red List least concern species
- Migratory birds (Eastern Hemisphere)
- Eurystomus
- Birds of Australia
- Birds of Japan
- Birds of Asia
- Birds of Southeast Asia
- Birds of Bangladesh
- Birds of Brunei
- Birds of Bhutan
- Birds of Cambodia
- Birds of China
- Birds of India
- Birds of Hong Kong
- Birds of Indonesia
- Birds of Laos
- Birds of Malaysia
- Birds of Myanmar
- Birds of Nepal
- Birds of North Korea
- Birds of Papua New Guinea
- Birds of the Philippines
- Birds of Russia
- Birds of Singapore
- Birds of the Solomon Islands
- Birds of South Korea
- Birds of Sri Lanka
- Birds of Taiwan
- Birds of Thailand
- Birds of Vietnam
