{{short description|Species of bird}} {{Speciesbox | image = Dollarbird Samcem Dec02.JPG | image_caption = Adult | status = LC | status_system = IUCN3.1 | status_ref = <ref name="iucn">{{cite iucn |author=BirdLife International. |year=2025 |title=''Eurystomus orientalis'' |volume=2025 |article-number=e.T22682920A280900348 |doi=10.2305/IUCN.UK.2025-2.RLTS.T22682920A280900348.en |access-date=25 December 2025}}</ref> | taxon = Eurystomus orientalis | authority = (Linnaeus, 1766) | range_map = Eurystomus orientalis distr.png | range_map_caption = Distribution of the oriental dollarbird | synonyms = ''Coracias orientalis'' {{small|Linnaeus, 1766}} }}
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.
==Taxonomy== 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''.<ref>{{cite book |last=Linnaeus |first=Carl |author-link=Carl Linnaeus |year=1766 |title=Systema naturae: per regna tria natura, secundum classes, ordines, genera, species, cum characteribus, differentiis, synonymis, locis |edition=12th |volume=1, Part 1 |publisher=Laurentii Salvii |place=Holmiae (Stockholm) |language=Latin |page=159 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/42946355}}</ref> Linnaeus based his description on "Le Rollier des Indes" that had been described and illustrated by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760.<ref>{{cite book |last=Brisson |first=Mathurin Jacques |author-link=Mathurin Jacques Brisson |year=1760 |title=Ornithologie, ou, Méthode Contenant la Division des Oiseaux en Ordres, Sections, Genres, Especes & leurs Variétés |volume=2 |language=French, Latin |pages=75–77, Plate 7 fig. 1 |place=Paris |publisher=Jean-Baptiste Bauche |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/36011263}}</ref> The type locality is the island of Java in Indonesia.<ref>{{ cite book |editor-last=Peters |editor-first=James Lee |editor-link=James L. Peters |year=1945 |title=Check-List of Birds of the World |volume=5 |publisher=Harvard University Press |place=Cambridge, Massachusetts |page=246 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/14480257}}</ref> The Oriental dollarbird is now placed in the genus ''Eurystomus'' that was introduced in 1816 by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot.<ref>{{cite book |last=Vieillot |first=Louis Pierre |author-link=Louis Pierre Vieillot |year=1816 |title=Analyse d'une Nouvelle Ornithologie Élémentaire |publisher=Deterville/self | location=Paris |page=37 |language=French|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9745205x/f43.item }}</ref><ref name=ioc>{{cite web|editor1-last=Gill |editor1-first=Frank |editor1-link=Frank Gill (ornithologist) |editor2-last=Donsker |editor2-first=David |editor3-last=Rasmussen |editor3-first=Pamela |editor3-link=Pamela Rasmussen |date=January 2021 |title=Rollers, ground rollers, kingfishers |work=IOC World Bird List Version 11.1 |url=https://www.worldbirdnames.org/bow/rollers/ |publisher=International Ornithologists' Union |access-date=22 April 2021}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Johansson |first1=U.S. |last2=Irestedt |first2=M. |last3=Qu |first3=Y. |last4=Ericson |first4=P. G. P. |date=2018 |title=Phylogenetic relationships of rollers (Coraciidae) based on complete mitochondrial genomes and fifteen nuclear genes |journal=Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution |volume=126 |pages=17–22|doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2018.03.030|pmid=29631051 |bibcode=2018MolPE.126...17J |s2cid=5011292}}</ref> 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 ''orientalis'' 'eastern'.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://archive.org/details/Helm_Dictionary_of_Scientific_Bird_Names_by_James_A._Jobling|title=Helm Dictionary of Scientific Bird-names|last=Jobling |first=James A. |year=2010}}</ref> Alternate names for the oriental dollarbird include the '''Asian dollarbird''', '''dark roller''', '''dollar roller''', '''dollarbird''', '''eastern broad-billed roller''' and '''oriental broad-billed roller'''.
Ten subspecies are recognized:<ref name=ioc /> * ''E. o. cyanocollis'' – <small>Vieillot, 1819</small>: Found from the Himalayas through China to south-eastern Siberia, Korea and Japan * ''E. o. orientalis'' – <small>(Linnaeus, 1766)</small>: Found from the southern Himalayas to Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java, Borneo and the Philippines * ''E. o. laetior'' – <small>Sharpe, 1890</small>: Found in south-western India * ''E. o. gigas'' – <small>Stresemann, 1913</small>: Found on southern Andaman Islands * ''E. o. irisi'' – <small>Deraniyagala, 1951</small>: Found in Sri Lanka * ''E. o. oberholseri'' – <small>Junge, 1936</small>: Found on Simeulue (off north-western Sumatra) * '''Australian roller''' (''E. o. pacificus'') – <small>(Latham, 1801)</small>: Originally described as a separate species in the genus ''Coracias''. Found on the Lesser Sunda Islands, northern and eastern Australia * ''E. o. waigiouensis'' – <small>Elliot, DG, 1871</small>: Originally described as a separate species. Found on New Guinea, western Papuan islands, D'Entrecasteaux Islands and the Louisiade Archipelago * ''E. o. crassirostris'' – <small>Sclater, PL, 1869</small>: Originally described as a separate species. Found in the Bismarck Archipelago * ''E. o. solomonensis'' – <small>Sharpe, 1890</small>: Originally described as a separate species. Found in the Solomon Islands
==Description== The oriental dollarbird has a length of up to 30 cm. It is 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 overall the two are 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.<ref name=fry>{{cite book | last1=Fry | first1=C. Hilary| last2=Fry | first2=Kathie| last3=Harris | first3=Alan | chapter=Dollarbird | year=1992 | title=Kingfishers, Bee-eaters, and Rollers| publisher=Christopher Helm | location=London | isbn=978-0-7136-8028-7 | pages=305–308 }}</ref>
==Distribution and habitat== The oriental dollarbird is found from Australia to Japan and India. At least some subspecies (for example ''E. o. pacificus'') are migratory. It breeds in northern and eastern Australia between the months of September and April and winters in New Guinea and nearby islands. The birds prefer open wooded areas with hollow-bearing trees to build nests in.
== Behaviour and ecology == The oriental dollarbird is most commonly seen singly 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.
==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed" heights="120"> File: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. File:Dollarbird1.jpg|At Rangapur near Dhansar River, Nepal File:Eurystomus orientalis -Miami Metrozoo, USA -singing-8a.jpg|Singing at Miami MetroZoo, USA File:Dollarbird.jpg|Kaeng Krachan Nat'l Park - Thailand File:Dollarbird rushck.ogg|Two Oriental dollarbirds, Rush Creek, SE Queensland, Australia File:Dollarbird Manas National Park Assam India April 2019.jpg|A pair of birds from Manas, Assam, India. File:4G4A5932.jpg|Dollarbird File:Oriental Dollar Bird at Central Park, Salt Lake, Kolkata 2.jpg|Oriental Dollar Bird at Central Park, Salt Lake, Kolkata </gallery>
== References == {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite book |title=Handbook of Australian, New Zealand and Antarctic Birds. Volume 4: Parrots to dollarbird | editor-last=Higgins | editor-first=Peter J. |year=1999 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Melbourne | isbn=978-0-19-553071-1 | chapter=''Eurystomus orientalis'' Dollarbird | chapter-url=http://nzbirdsonline.org.nz/sites/all/files/303_Dollarbird.pdf | pages=1225–1239 }}
== External links == {{Commons category|Eurystomus orientalis}} {{Wikispecies|Eurystomus orientalis}} * [https://datazone.birdlife.org/species/factsheet/oriental-dollarbird-eurystomus-orientalis BirdLife Species Factsheet] * [http://www.birdphotos.com.au/Dollarbird/default.html Photos of dollarbirds] from Australian Birdlife Photo Library * [http://avocet.zoology.msu.edu/recordings/13711 Sound of ''burung Tiong Batu'', Recording AV#13711. Malaysia: Sabah; Sepilok, Rainforest Discovery Centre (within 1km) (5.879, 117.946), recorded by Frank R. Lambert] * [http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/species/Eurystomus-orientalis Birds in Backyards: Dollarbird] *[https://ebird.org/species/dollar1/ Photos, audio and video of oriental dollarbird] from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Macaulay Library {{Authority control}}
{{Taxonbar|from=Q44109}}
Oriental dollarbird Category:Birds of Southeast Asia Category:Birds of New Guinea Category:Birds of the Solomon Islands Category:Migratory birds (Eastern Hemisphere) Oriental dollarbird Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Animal taxa named by Carl Linnaeus