---
title: Oriental Flying Gurnard (Dactyloptena orientalis)
scientific_name: Dactyloptena orientalis
common_name: Oriental Flying Gurnard
taxon: Flying gurnards
conservation_status: LC - Least Concern
published: 2024-10-30T15:28:41.521Z
updated: 2026-08-13T13:19:24.393Z
tags: Oriental Flying Gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis, Flying gurnards, Red Sea, Marine Life, Diving
url: https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/flying-gurnards/oriental-flying-gurnard
---

# Oriental Flying Gurnard (*Dactyloptena orientalis*)

## Quick facts

- **Group:** Flying gurnards (*Dactylopteridae*)
- **Size:** up to 40 cm
- **Depth:** 5-100 m
- **Diet:** Carnivore
- **Activity:** Diurnal
- **Rarity:** Rare
- **Habitat:** Open sand and silt, walking on the bottom
- **Reproduction:** Broadcast spawner, Gonochoric
- **Conservation status:** LC - Least Concern

## How to recognise it

- enormous fan-like pectoral fins, spotted blue, spread when alarmed
- armored bony head with a spine pointing back from each cheek
- walks over sand on short separated fin rays under the body
- length up to 40 cm

A bony-headed fish that walks over sand on stiff finger-like rays, dragging a pair of folded fans behind it. Spread, those pectoral fins are enormous, translucent and spotted with electric blue - and they open only when the animal is alarmed.

The wings are a bluff. This fish cannot fly and does not glide; the display doubles its apparent size in a second and is aimed at whatever is following it. If that fails it swims off in a short burst and settles again.

Walking is done with the first few pectoral rays, which are separate from the fan and thick enough to bear weight. The fish uses them to shuffle and to rake sediment for crabs, small fish and molluscs, and the armored head takes the rest of the work.

Juveniles look nothing like the adults and drift in open water, which is why the two were once described separately. On a night dive over sand, a gurnard that opens its wings in a torch beam is one of the better things this sea offers.

## Also known as

- **English:** oriental flying gurnard, Indo-Pacific Flying Gurnard, Oriental Helmet Gurnard
- **Hebrew:** טייר משוריין
- **French:** Grondin Volant Etoilé, Grondin Volant Oriental, Grondin Volant Rouge
- **German:** Helm-Flughahn
- **Spanish:** Alón Oriental
- **Portuguese:** Falso-voador-do-Indo-Pacífico
- **Czech:** letucha východní
- **Japanese:** セミホウボウ, Semihobo
- **Chinese:** 東方豹魴鮄, 東方飛角魚, 海胡蠅
- **Russian:** Восточная дактилоптена
- **DA:** Orientalsk flyveknurhane
- **KO:** 쭉지성대
- **TH:** ปลานกฮูก

## Scientific synonyms

- *Corystion orientale* (Cuvier, 1829)
- *Corystion orientalis* (Cuvier, 1829)
- *Dactylopterus cheirophthalmus* Bleeker, 1855
- *Dactylopterus japonicus* Bleeker, 1854
- *Dactylopterus orientalis* Cuvier, 1829
- *Ebisinus procne* Ogilby, 1910

## Range

Comoros, Federal Republic of Somalia, Indian Ocean, Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, New Zealand, Republic of Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa

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*Source: [Red Sea Creatures](https://redseacreatures.com/taxon/fishes/bony-fishes/flying-gurnards/oriental-flying-gurnard)*
*Updated: August 13, 2026*