Oriental flying gurnard
Amazing fact
The purple flying gurnard can walk on the seabed by alternately moving its pelvic fins and short pectoral-fin rays.
Australian Museum
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
The purple flying gurnard can walk on the seabed by alternately moving its pelvic fins and short pectoral-fin rays.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Oriental flying gurnard
- Scientific name
- Dactyloptena orientalis
- Japanese name
- セミホウボウ
- Group
- Ocean animals
- Order
- Syngnathiformes
- Family
- Dactylopteridae
- Genus
- Dactyloptena
It lives in Japanese waters from the Oshima Peninsula in Hokkaido to Okinawa, around Korea and Taiwan, and across the Indian Ocean and western Pacific to Hawaii.
When it senses danger, it spreads its large pectoral fins to startle the threat, a behavior called flashing.
How the Oriental flying gurnard lives
It lives on sandy or muddy seabeds, among other habitats. It mainly eats small crustaceans. It spreads its pectoral fins and glides through the water near the seabed. It usually holds its pectoral fins against the sides of its body.
沖縄美ら海水族館Australian MuseumBasic data
- Range
- East China Sea, Ogasawara Islands, southern Korea, Taiwan, Indo-West Pacific, Fiji, Hawaii, and elsewhere
Where the Oriental flying gurnard has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- セミホウボウ
- 简体中文
- 东方豹鲂鮄
- 繁體中文
- 東方飛角魚
- 한국어
- 쭉지성대
- Français
- Grondin volant oriental
- Deutsch
- Helm-Flughahn
- Português (Brasil)
- Falso-voador-do-Indo-Pacífico
- Italiano
- Pesce civetta orientale
- Русский
- Восточная дактилоптена
- ไทย
- ปลานกฮูก
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- 鳥羽水族館 — セミホウボウChecked: 2026-11-04
- 沖縄美ら海水族館 — セミホウボウChecked: 2026-11-07
- Australian Museum — Purple Flying Gurnard, Dactyloptena orientalis (Cuvier, 1829)Checked: 2026-11-07
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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