Oriental flying gurnard

About this species

Dactyloptena orientalis, known commonly as the Oriental flying gurnard or purple flying gurnard among other vernacular names, is a species of marine fish in the family Dactylopteridae. Their name is derived from the French word 'gurnard' meaning to grunt, for the grunting sound this fish makes.

Text from the Wikipedia article “Oriental flying gurnard”, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Read the article

Where and when

Where it has been recorded

Worldwide

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Best months

Worldwide (open data)

January: 82 records
February: 49 records
March: 64 records
April: 102 records
May: 101 records
June: 94 records
July: 75 records
August: 87 records
September: 125 records
October: 111 records
November: 97 records
December: 78 records

Depth and water temperature

Depth

Mostly recorded at 23–140 m · Deepest record: 325 m

0–10 m: 4 records
10–20 m: 7 records
20–30 m: 18 records
30–40 m: 19 records
40–50 m: 11 records
50–60 m: 26 records
60–70 m: 23 records
70–80 m: 12 records
80–90 m: 6 records
90–100 m: 4 records
100–110 m: 6 records
110+ m: 36 records

Water temperature

Recorded in surface water of 18–29 °C

18–20 °C: 9 records
20–22 °C: 23 records
22–24 °C: 48 records
24–26 °C: 45 records
26–28 °C: 81 records
28–30 °C: 50 records

Photos

(c) Dan Schofield, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Ben Costamagna, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) brendanboyd, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) desertnaturalist, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist
(c) Ewout Knoester, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · CC BY-SA · iNaturalist
(c) Jay Paroline, some rights reserved (CC BY) · CC BY · iNaturalist

Names and classification

English: Oriental flying gurnard, Flying Gurnard, Helmet Gurnard, Helmet Gurnard, Oriental flying gurnard, Helmut Gurnard, Indo-Pacific Flying Gurnard, oriental flying gurnard, Oriental Helmet Gurnard, Oriental Searobin, purple flying gurnard, Purple Flying-gurnard

Names in 7 more languages

German: Helm-Flughahn
Spanish: Alón Oriental
French: Dactyloptère, Grondin Volant Etoilé, Grondin volant étoilé, Grondin volant, Grondin volant étoilé, Grondin Volant Oriental, Grondin Volant Rouge, Poisson volant
Japanese: Semihobo, セミホウボウ
Korean: 쭉지성대
Thai: ปลานกฮูก
Simplified Chinese: 東方豹魴鮄, 東方飛角魚, 海胡蠅, 番雞公, 紅飛魚, 雞角, 飛角, 飛角魚

Other scientific names: Corystion orientale, Corystion orientalis, Dactylopterus cheirophthalmus, Dactylopterus japonicus, Dactylopterus orientalis, Ebisinus procne

Similar species

Dactyloptena macracantha
Plain Helmet Gurnard
Dactyloptena tiltoni

Sources and credits

Names and taxonomy: WoRMS (CC BY 4.0) and the GBIF Backbone (CC BY 4.0). Photos: iNaturalist observers, each under the licence shown (CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA).

Depth, temperature, months and maps: records from OBIS and GBIF under CC0 or CC BY.
Descriptions: Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA, each linked to its article.
Conservation status as published by GBIF (IUCN Red List).
818 open-data records from 1829 to 2025.
Species data updated October 26, 2026.