Dollarbird

Dollarbird is a rare Australian vagrant, a stocky blue-green roller with a huge orange-red bill. Dark-brown head and breast, bright-blue throat and round pale-blue wing patches distinguish it from every resident bird; the patches resemble silver dollars in flight.

More than twenty New Zealand records span both main islands, especially the Far North and Westland, usually during Australian migration months. It watches from dead branches or poles and chases cicadas, beetles and moths in agile aerial pursuit.

There is no regular site; most records are chance discoveries in lightly wooded farmland from September to May.