Also known as the White-collared Kingfisher/ Black-masked Kingfisher/ Mangrove Kingfisher

Todiramphus chloris

Malaysia & Singapore

Kingfishers or Alcedinidae are a family of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania. The family contains 114 species and is divided into three subfamilies and 19 genera.

All kingfishers have large heads, long, sharp, pointed bills, short legs, and stubby tails. Most species have bright plumage with only small differences between the sexes. The kingfishers have a cosmopolitan distribution, occurring throughout the world's tropical and temperate regions. They are absent from the polar regions and some of the world's driest deserts. A number of species have reached islands groups, particularly those in the south and east Pacific Ocean. Most species are tropical in distribution, and a slight majority are found only in forests. They consume a wide range of prey usually caught by swooping down from a perch. While kingfishers are usually thought to live near rivers and eat fish, many species live away from water and eat small invertebrates. Like other members of their order, they nest in cavities, usually tunnels dug into the natural or artificial banks in the ground. Some kingfishers nest in arboreal termite nests.

A number of species are considered threatened by human activities and are in danger of extinction. The majority of these are forest species with limited distribution, particularly insular species. They are threatened by habitat loss caused by forest clearance or degradation and in some cases by introduced species.

Kingfishers are generally shy birds, but in spite of this, they feature heavily in human culture, generally due to the large head supporting its powerful mouth, their bright plumage, or some species' interesting behaviour. For the Dusun people of Borneo, the Oriental-dwarf Kingfisher is considered a bad omen, and warriors who see one on the way to battle should return home. Another Bornean tribe considers the Banded Kingfisher an omen bird, albeit generally a good omen.

I have been able to photograph a few of these beautiful kingfishers from all across Asia Pacific with some coming quite easily and some coming after waiting for hours, damp and cold but worth every bit the wait. Read about some of the kingfishers I have already written about.

Today is about one of these gorgeous birds at close quarters - the Collared Kingfisher. This kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the white-collared kingfisher, black-masked kingfisher or mangrove kingfisher. It has a wide range extending from the Red Sea across southern Asia to Polynesia. A number of subspecies and subspecies groups have been split from this species including the Pacific kingfisher, the islet kingfisher, the Torresian kingfisher, the Mariana kingfisher, and the Melanesian kingfisher.

But first a little bit about the fascinating habitats these birds frequent.

Singapore

Singapore’s urbanisation cost it almost 95% of its historical forests and just over half of the naturally occurring fauna & flora in Singapore is present in its numerous nature reserves. These nature reserves comprise only about 0.25% of Singapore’s land area and to combat this decline the government, from 1967, has tried to make Singapore a ‘garden city’. Since then, nearly 10% of Singapore’s land has been set aside for parks & nature reserves resulting in about 350 species of birds found within an area of just 650 km² offering enthusiasts excellent birding throughout the year. The best period is between August and April when the migrants, mostly from the Palearctic fly in, and together with the resident birds make it an exciting time.

Talking only of kingfishers, Singapore is home to a total of eight different types of kingfisher of which there are two stunning and rare. The first is the blue-eared kingfisher and then there’s the oriental dwarf kingfisher that can sometimes be spotted in the winter. But today we will document the Collared Kingfisher. 

Apart from all the birding, Singapore is also a very picturesque city and lends itself kindly to some amazing wide angled cityscapes. Here are some 16:9 photos of a few glittering landmarks.

The Collared Kingfisher I have seen at numerous locations within Singapore like the Sungei Buloh Nature Reserve, Windsor Nature Park, Marina Bay Area & Jurong Eco Garden to name a few. I have also spotted the kingfisher at various other locations in Malaysia like Langkawi. 

Langkawi

I spent some time in the emerald waters of Langkawi in Malaysia - the jewel of Kedah. Our area of interest was Sungai Kubang Badak and its estuary - first for the Brahminy Kite and the White-bellied Sea Eagle and later for other spectacular species like the Near Threatened Brown-winged Kingfisher.

Officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah (in Malay: Langkawi Permata Kedah), is a district and an archipelago of 99 islands (plus five small islands visible only at low tide) in the Malacca Straits. some 30 km off the coast of northwestern Malaysia. Surrounded by a turquoise sea, the interior of the main island is a mixture of picturesque paddy fields and jungle-clad hills while the shoreline is fringed by powder-fine sand, swaying coconut trees and dense mangroves. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border; the islands are a few kilometres south of Ko Tarutao. On 15 July 2008, the then-sultan of Kedah, Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah, conferred the title of Langkawi Permata Kedah (meaning 'Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah') upon the island as part of his golden jubilee as an affirmation of Kedah's ownership over the island.

The island of Langkawi was recorded in history by various travellers to the region. It was called Lóngyápútí in the 14th century by the Yuan dynasty traveller Wang Dayuan. When the Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He visited the region, the island was marked as Lóngyájiāoyǐ, on his map. In the 15th century, it was known to the Acehnese as Pulau Lada ('Pepper Island'). In 1691, the French general Augustin de Beaulieu recorded going to the island of "Lancahui" (Langkawi) to buy pepper, and de Beaulieu was required to obtain a license from Kedah's heir apparent then in Perlis before the penghulu or chief of Langkawi would sell pepper to him. The name Langkawi is thought to have existed by the early 15th century, although in the 16th century the island of Langkawi was also marked on maps variously as Langa, Langka, Lansura, and Langapura. There are many suggestions for the origin of the name of Langkawi. According to one interpretation, Langkawi means island of the reddish-brown eagle, a Brahminy Kite in colloquial Malay. The Malay word for eagle is helang (colloquially shortened to lang), and kawi is a red stone used as a chalk to mark goods. This interpretation was used to create the landmark sculpture of an eagle as the symbol of Langkawi at Dataran Helang (Eagle Square) in Kuah, the largest town on the island.

Some believed that Langkawi is the same as, or related to, the Lanka or Langkapuri mentioned in the epic Ramayana as the city of King Ravana. This ancient name Lanka (or Lankapura and Lankapuri) is found in Indian literature from an early period although the identification of the original Lanka is not certain. Puri or puram in Sanskrit means a town or city. The name Langkawi is also thought to be related to Langkasuka, an old kingdom believed to have links with Kedah. Some also thought that Langkawi means "many beautiful islands", langka being a Sanskrit word meaning "beautiful" while wi means "many".

Our area of interest however, is in the northwest of the main island which is about 25 kilometres (16 mi) from north to south and slightly more from east to west. The coastal areas consist of flat, alluvial plains punctuated with limestone ridges. Two-thirds of the island is dominated by forest-covered mountains, hills, and natural vegetation. On 1 June 2007, Langkawi Island was given a World Geopark status by UNESCO. Three of its main conservation areas in Langkawi Geopark are Machincang Cambrian Geoforest Park, Kilim Karst Geoforest Park, and Dayang Bunting Marble Geoforest park (Island of the Pregnant Maiden Lake). These three parks are the most popular tourism area within Langkawi Geopark. In 2014, UNESCO issued a "yellow card" warning threatening the status of the Geopark.

The island's oldest geological formation, the Machinchang Formation, was the first part of Southeast Asia to rise from the seabed in the Cambrian more than half a billion years ago. The oldest part of the formation is observable at Teluk Datai to the northwest of the island, where the exposed outcrop consists of mainly sandstone (quartzite) in the upper parts and shale and mudstone in the lower parts of the sequence. The other known example, the Jerai Formation, emerges near the west coast of Kedah on the mainland (peninsula). Geologically, all these rocks are in the Western Belt of peninsular Malaysia, which is thought to be part of the Shan–Thai Terrane.

With that said lets move on to the photos of this gorgeous tree kingfisher.

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Collared Kingfisher

The Collared Kingfisher (Todiramphus chloris) is a medium-sized kingfisher belonging to the subfamily Halcyoninae, the tree kingfishers. It is also known as the White-collared Kingfisher, Black-masked Kingfisher or Mangrove Kingfisher. It has a wide range extending from the Red Sea across southern Asia to Polynesia. A number of subspecies and subspecies groups have been split from this species including the Pacific Kingfisher, the Islet kingfisher, the Torresian Kingfisher, the Mariana kingfisher, and the Melanesian Kingfisher.

The tree kingfishers, also called wood kingfishers or Halcyoninae, are the most numerous of the three subfamilies of birds in the kingfisher family, with around 70 species divided into 12 genera, including several species of kookaburras. The subfamily appears to have arisen in Indochina and Maritime Southeast Asia and then spread to many areas around the world. Tree kingfishers are widespread through Asia and Australasia, but also appear in Africa and the islands of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, using a range of habitats from tropical rainforest to open woodlands.

The tree kingfishers are short-tailed, large-headed, compact birds with long, pointed bills. Like other Coraciiformes, they are brightly coloured. Most are monogamous and territorial, nesting in holes in trees or termite nests. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Although some tree kingfishers frequent wetlands, none are specialist fish-eaters. Most species dive onto prey from a perch, mainly taking slow-moving invertebrates or small vertebrates.

The tree kingfisher subfamily is often given the name Daceloninae introduce by Charles Lucien Bonaparte in 1841, but the name Halcyoninae introduced by Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825 is earlier and has priority. The subfamily Halcyoninae is one of three subfamilies in the kingfisher family Alcedinidae. The other two are Alcedininae and Cerylinae. The subfamily contains around 70 species divided into 12 genera. A molecular study published in 2017 found that the genera Dacelo and Actenoides as currently defined are paraphyletic. The shovel-billed kookaburra in the monotypic genus Clytoceyx sits within Dacelo and the glittering kingfisher in the monotypic genus Caridonax lies within Actenoides.

Most tree kingfishers are found in the warm climates of Africa, southern and southeast Asia, and Australasia. No members of this family are found in the Americas. The origin of the family is thought to have been in tropical Australasia, which still has the most species.

Tree kingfishers use a range of habitats from tropical rainforest to open woodlands and thorn-bush country. Many are not closely tied to water, and can be found in arid areas of Australia and Africa.

The Collared Kingfisher was described by the French polymath Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon in his Histoire Naturelle des Oiseaux in 1780. The bird was also illustrated in a hand-coloured plate engraved by François-Nicolas Martinet in the Planches Enluminées D'Histoire Naturelle. This was produced under the supervision of Edme-Louis Daubenton to accompany Buffon's text. Neither the plate caption nor Buffon's description included a scientific name but in 1783 the Dutch naturalist Pieter Boddaert coined the binomial name Alcedo chloris in his catalogue of the Planches Enluminées. The type locality is the island of Buru within Indonesia. The current genus Todiramphus was introduced by the French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1827. The specific epithet chloris is modern Latin for 'green' or 'greenish'.

There are numerous subspecies in the species’ largely coastal and insular range from the Red Sea to Polynesia:

• T. c. abyssinicus (Pelzeln, 1856) – southern Red Sea coasts of Somalia and Arabia

• T. c. kalbaensis (Cowles, 1980) – coasts of northeastern United Arab Emirates (Khawr Kalba) and northern Oman

• T. c. vidali (Sharpe, 1892) – western India from Ratnagiri to Kerala.

• T. c. davisoni (Sharpe, 1892) – Andaman Islands and Coco Islands (in Bay of Bengal, south of Myanmar)

• T. c. occipitalis (Blyth, 1846) – Nicobar Islands

• T. c. humii (Sharpe, 1892) – coasts of West Bengal eastwards to Burma (including the Mergui Archipelago), the Malay Peninsula, Tioman and north-eastern Sumatra.

• T. c. armstrongi (Sharpe, 1892) – interior of Burma and Thailand, Indochina and eastern China

• T. c. laubmannianus (Grote, 1933) – Sumatra (excluding northeast) and Borneo, including intervening islands.

• T. c. chloropterus (Oberholser, 1919) – islands off western Sumatra

• T. c. azelus (Oberholser, 1919) – Enggano (off southwestern Sumatra)

• T. c. palmeri (Oberholser, 1919) – Java, Bali, Bawean and Kangean Islands

• T. c. collaris (Scopoli, 1786) – Philippines, including Palawan and nearby islands.

• T. c. chloris (Boddaert, 1783) – Talaud and Sangihe Islands through Sulawesi to the Lesser Sundas (east from Lombok), West Papuan Islands and north-western New Guinea (Vogelkop and Onin peninsulas).

• T. c. teraokai (Nagamichi Kuroda, 1915) – Palau

The collared kingfisher is 23 to 25 cm long and the male weighs 51 to 90 grams, while the female weighs 54–100 grams. It varies from blue to green above while the underparts can be white or buff. There is a white collar around the neck, giving the bird its name. Some races have a white or buff stripe over the eye while others have a white spot between the eye and bill. There may be a black stripe through the eye. The large bill is black with a pale yellow base to the lower mandible. Females tend to be greener than the males. Immature birds are duller than the adults with dark scaly markings on the neck and breast.

It has a variety of calls which vary geographically. The most typical call is a loud, harsh and metallic "kee-kee-kee" repeated several times.

It is most commonly found in coastal areas, particularly in mangrove swamps. It also inhabits farmland, open woodland, grassland and gardens. In some parts of its range, especially on islands, it can be seen further inland, ranging into forest or into mountain areas. Birds often perch conspicuously on wires, rocks or bare branches. The subspecies that occurs furthest west in the Eurasian/African landmass is T. c. abyssinica of north-east Africa, which is found in patches of mangroves in Eritrea and has also been recorded from Sudan and Somalia. Further east in Arabia is the endangered race T. c. kalbaensis with a population of 55 pairs or fewer; these are almost entirely restricted to Khor Kalba in the United Arab Emirates, but breeding has also occurred recently at Khor Shinas in Oman. Further subspecies occur locally around the coasts of India and Bangladesh and on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In Southeast Asia and Indonesia the species is widespread and common, occurring far inland in some regions.

Tree kingfishers are monogamous and territorial, although some species, including three kookaburras, have a cooperative breeding system involving young from earlier broods. The nest is a tree hole, either natural, and old woodpecker nest, or excavated in soft or rotting wood by the kingfishers. Several species dig holes in termite nests. No nest material is added, although litter may build up over the years. Both parents incubate the eggs and feed the chicks. Egg laying is staggered at one-day intervals so that if food is short, only the older, larger nestlings get fed. The chicks are naked, blind, and helpless when they hatch, and stand on their heels, unlike adults.

Although some tree kingfishers, such as the black-capped kingfisher, frequent wetlands, none are specialist fishers. Most species are watch-and-wait hunters which dive onto prey from a perch, mainly taking slow-moving invertebrates or small vertebrates. The shovel-billed kookaburra digs through leaf litter for worms and other prey, and the Vanuatu kingfisher feeds exclusively on insects and spiders. Several other western Pacific species are also mainly insectivorous and fly catch for prey. As with the other kingfisher families, insectivorous species tend to have flattened, red bills to assist in the capture of insects. Small crabs and shrimps are the favoured food of the collared kingfisher in coastal regions but a wide variety of other animals are eaten including insects (including beetles, cicadas, stick-insects, grasshoppers, moths and butterflies), spiders, earthworms, snails, frogs, lizards, small snakes, small fish, and sometimes small birds and mice. The collared kingfisher perches almost motionless for long periods waiting for prey. When it spots something it glides down to catch it and then flies back to the perch where larger items are pounded against the branch to subdue them. Any indigestible remains are regurgitated as pellets.

With a very wide distribution and common to abundant population, the collared kingfisher is classed as least concern on the IUCN Red List.

The following gallery of the Collared Kingfisher is of the birds observed & photographed at Singapore & Langkawi.

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