AJP spotted this Oriental Dollarbird from his flat above Kowloon Tong in Hong Kong. The Oriental Dollarbird (Eurystomus orientalis) is a passage migrant in Hong Kong, heading north in spring and south in winter. It heads as far north as Russia, northern China and southern Japan. Its stronghold is southeast Asia but it is also a summer visitor to eastern Australia, reaching the coastal areas of Victoria. It is a member of the roller family and was known in Hong Kong as the Broad-billed Roller. It is now much more common in Hong Kong than in the early decades of the 20th century. Geoffrey Herklots noted that he had only one seen this species in over 15 years. That was on 27 September 1945, his first birdwatching walk after release from Japanese internment at Stanley.
We did not see this species in Hong Kong in the 1960s but have done so since 1997 when we first went back. We have seen it in Borneo (Sabah) and on Langkawi, Malaysia.
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