Hodgepodge 14/365 - Kingfishers

Javan kingfisher (Halcyon cyanoventris)

Early on in my first yearlong effort at blogging (on day 39, to be exact) I wrote about my bird bucket list. There I mentioned kingfishers as being a possibly excellent focus for such a project, because there are relatively few species (only about ninety), and they would of course lead to other birds as well, so I'd still get to keep filling my bucket while working on a specific goal. They would also allow me to travel hither and yon—with a goal! what better!—since they are found on every continent except that far-southerly one.

So today, I bring you the kingfisher! Facts and a little fancy.

Syndactyly illustrated
(belted kingfisher foot)

Kingfishers, according to Wikipedia, are in the order Coraciiformes, "a group of usually colorful birds including the kingfishers, the bee-eaters, the rollers, the motmots, and the todies. They generally have syndactyly, with three forward-pointing toes (and toes 3 & 4 fused at their base), though in many kingfishers one of these is missing." The order's name comes from the genus Coracias (to which many of the rollers belong), and in turn from the Greek korakias (chough), which is related to the Greek korax, or raven. (I do not know how ravens bullied their way into things, but that's ravens, I guess.) Kingfishers are divided into three families: water (Cerylidae), river (Alcedinidae), and tree (Halcyonidae).

Belted kingfisher

In the rainy season, a creek runs across the street from us. It must contain fish, because on a good day I will hear the call—a sort of rattle—of the belted kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon). I always rush out to see if I can spot it, and when I'm lucky, I do: usually it's sitting on the telephone line above the creek, peering intently into the rushing water. Three other species, water kingfishers all, inhabit North America, mostly in Mexico (and into South America): the American pygmy, the green, and the ringed. South America hosts in addition the Amazon and the green-and-rufous kingfishers—so, six species all together.

Ten species of kingfisher are found in Australia. Surely you've heard of the laughing kookaburra (Dacelo novaeguineae):

Yep, the kookaburra is a kingfisher (though it doesn't look quite like the one in the video), in the Halcyonidae family. Here it is laughing its distinctive laugh in the flesh.

Pied kingfisher

Africa is home to sixteen species of kingfisher, of which I have seen at least two while traveling in Botswana and Namibia: the malachite (Alcedo cristata cristata) and pied (Ceryle rudis rudis). Apparently I have to go back to Africa to see the other fourteen. Too bad.

Common kingfisher (Alcedo atthis)

Poor Europe only has two kingfishers: the "common" (me, I think all "common" common names should be revised to something more befitting of their spectacularness: the "common" grebe, kingfisher, loon, and merganser leap to mind . . . but I digress) and the white-throated. My Norwegian sister-in-law just came to visit, and she mentioned a rare and thrilling sighting of a (not so common in Norway) common kingfisher right there in Oslo. I'd be thrilled too: they're beautiful.

And then there's Asia. Thirty-five species are listed in Wikipedia, some of which of course are also found in Europe and Africa.

Brown-headed paradise
kingfisher of New Guinea
(Tanysiptera danae)

And if we wander down or across the Pacific to Indonesia, New Guinea, the Philippines, we'll find more species. They're all over. And I sure would love to see at least some of them, even if all of them is an impossibly elusive goal.

Here is a gallery of kingfishers on Pinterest. Take a look. They're simply amazing.

What about a dedicated birding tour in late 2017? Southeast Asia. Maybe Indonesia? New Guinea? Doesn't sound bad, does it? A few more kingfishers in my bucket. I like that idea.