A clique of Kingfishers

4 Sept

Part 1

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 behavior. 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. Featured here are 9 species, presented in three parts, some easily seen and some rare, threatened and critically endangered.

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The blue-banded kingfisher (Alcedo euryzona), is a species of kingfisher in the subfamily Alcedininae. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forest, subtropical or tropical mangrove forest, and rivers.

The first formal description of the blue-banded kingfisher was by the Dutch zoologist Coenraad Jacob Temminck in 1830. In his initial publication the binomial name was incorrectly printed as Alcedo cryzona but this was later corrected to Alcedo euryzona. The specific epithet euryzona is from the classical Greek eurus meaning "broad" and zōnē meaning "band" or "belt".

Two subspecies are recognised:

A. e. peninsulae Laubmann, 1941 – south Myanmar, Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, southwestern Thailand and Borneo
A. e. euryzona Temminck, 1830 – Java

In a world list of non-passerine species published in 2014, del Hoyo and colleagues promoted A. e. peninsulae to species status with the vernacular name "Malay blue-banded kingfisher" pictured here.

Status: Critically Endangered

This kingfisher was photographed in the dense rainforests of the Kaeng Krachan National Park. It had been a wet day and made much worse as we had to climb down fairly steep and slippery banks to cross the stream seen in the photo and some water seeped into our shoes. It is a very shy and easily scared bird so we had to sit without making any noise for almost 5/6 hours before the bird came for a few seconds to inspect its new nest. The pair had built their nest - a tunnel - on the river bank opposite the perch it is on and in the first photo it is looking at the nest before darting in and out very quickly. Didn’t see the female that day and it was starting to get quite dark by the time the male came and left.

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The blue-eared kingfisher (Alcedo meninting) is found in Asia, ranging across the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is found mainly in dense shaded forests where it hunts in small streams. It is darker crowned, with darker rufous underparts and lacking the rufous ear stripe of the common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) which is found in more open habitats. A number of subspecies have been described that differ in measurement and colour shade. Adult males have an all dark bill while females have a reddish lower mandible.

Several plumage variations in the population that occur across its wide distribution range have been recognized as subspecies:

A. m. coltarti Baker ECS, 1919 – Nepal, northeast India, northern Thailand and Indochina
A. m. phillipsi Baker ECS, 1927 – southwest India and Sri Lanka
A. m. scintillans Baker ECS, 1919 – southern Myanmar and Thailand
A. m. rufigastra Walden, 1873 – Andaman Islands
A. m. meninting Horsfield, 1821 – southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, southern Philippines, Islands off the west coast of Sumatra, Java, Lombok, Sulawesi, Banggai and Sula Islands.

Some other subspecies such as verreauxii, callima, subviridis and proxima are not considered to be sufficiently distinct.

This 16 centimetres (6.3 in) long kingfisher is almost identical to the common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis) but is distinguished by the blue ear coverts, darker and more intense cobalt-blue upperparts with richer rufous under parts. The juvenile blue-eared kingfisher has rufous ear-coverts as in the common kingfisher but it usually shows some mottling on the throat and upper breast which disappears when the bird reaches adulthood. Young birds have a reddish bill with whitish tips.

The range of this species stretches from India in the west, eastwards across Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh, and further into Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and Malaysia. The usual habitat is pools or streams in dense evergreen forest and sometimes mangroves, situated under 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) of altitude.

Status: Least Concern

The blue-eared kingfisher is largely resident within its range. They usually perch on branches overhanging densely shaded streams before diving below to capture prey that includes crustaceans, dragonfly larvae and fish. Other insects including grasshoppers and mantids have been recorded. The bird featured here was photographed at close range from a very precarious hillside in the tropical rainforests of Sungai Congkak in the Hulu Langat district of Selangor state, Malaysia. Here too we had to get into position early and wait for the bird to come to feed in the tiny stream just below our position. It is reminiscent of sitting on a machan and waiting but in this case for a kingfisher and not a big cat.

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The rufous-backed kingfisher is sometimes considered a subspecies of the Oriental Dwarf Kingfisher.

The oriental dwarf kingfisher (Ceyx erithaca), also known as the black-backed kingfisher or three-toed kingfisher, is a species of bird in the family Alcedinidae. A widespread resident of lowland forest, it is endemic across much of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. It is found in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brunei, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka, and Thailand.

This is a small, red and yellow kingfisher, averaging 13 cm (5.1 in) in length, yellow underparts with glowing bluish-black upperparts.

The preferred habitat is small streams in densely shaded forests.

It begins to breed with the onset of the southwest monsoon in June. The nest is a horizontal tunnel up to a metre in length. The clutch of four or five eggs hatches in 17 days with both the male and female incubating.

The birds fledge after 20 days and a second brood may be raised if the first fails. The young are fed with geckos, skinks, crabs, snails, frogs, crickets, and dragonflies.

Status: Least Concern

The rufous-backed kingfisher is largely resident within its range. They usually perch on branches overhanging densely shaded streams before diving below to capture prey that includes crustaceans, dragonfly larvae and fish. Other insects including grasshoppers and mantids have been recorded. The bird featured here was also photographed at close range from the same precarious hillside in the tropical rainforests of Sungai Congkak in the Hulu Langat district of Selangor state, Malaysia. Here too we had to get into position early and wait for the bird to come to feed in the tiny stream just below our position.

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to be continued…