The static recrystallization process of a cold-rolled Mg-Zn-Gd alloy was tracked by a quasi-in-situ electron backscatter diffraction method to investigate the orientations of nuclei. The results show that orientation distribution of nuclei is associated with nucleation mechanism. The continuous static recrystallization nuclei display similar orientations to the parent grains with TD orientation. Differently, discontinuous static recrystallization nuclei formed within the parent grains (TD-45° orientation) show random ori-entations and a variety of misorientation angles but preferred axesor. Interestingly, a special oriented nucleation is found. Discontinuous static recrystallization nuclei originated from bound-aries of the parent grain (TD-70° orientation) show concentrated TD orientations in another side due to the preferred misorientation relationship 70° (Σ18b). It is speculated that these two special misorientation relationships are related to the dislocation type.