Kingfishers truly are one of the joys of life, with 90-95 species to be enjoyed in every continent except Antarctica. Moreover they've been brightening the planet for a long time - indeed the fossil record suggests that 60 million years ago kingfishers and their close kin were the dominant birds to be found perching above the landscapes of the Northern Hemisphere. However while both North America and Africa have been suggested as the ancestral kingfisher home, it seems likely, based on the fact that the oldest and most distinctive members of the dynasty are to be found in the south-east Asia to New Guinea area, that they arose there and spread.
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| This Sacred Kingfisher Todiramphus sanctus, in Mulligans Flat Nature Reserve, Canberra, demonstrates widespread kingfisher characteristics. In particular the erect posture, long sharp heavy bill, three toes forward and one back (like passerines) and bright colours are all recurring themes. |
Also in perpetual dispute is whether kingfishers belong to one diverse family or three separate ones, though there is no argument about the three distinct sub-groups. The majority opinion is that the divisions are wide enough to merit family status, and I'm going along with that. These families, in descending order of size, are the Tree Kingfishers, Halcyonidae (approximately 60 species), the River Kingfishers, Alcedinidae (22-24 species) and the Water Kingfishers, Cerylidae (9 species, including all the American ones). (If we accept just one family it has to be called Alcedinidae, as the Common Kingfisher of Europe and Asia, the first to be named scientifically, belongs there.)
And, just before we get to the birds themselves, and to confirm the reputation of kingfisher taxonomists as a disputatious lot, there is also confusion as to which of the groups represents the ancestral kingfishers; while it has always been generally agreed on the basis of physical and behavioural evidence that the Tree Kingfishers are the oldest, and from which the other two families derived, recent biochemical work challenges that and puts the River Kingfishers in the chair of honour. The argument goes on but for now I'll adopt the majority view - which seems to coincide with logic - and stick with the Tree Kingfishers as the originals. Specialist behaviour, such as fishing, has been adopted by a minority of the group and seems likely to have derived secondarily from more generalist forest and woodland hunters of small animals. However the Common Kingfisher happens to be one of the minority and its habits gave the name to the whole group, even though most of them don't fish, or only rarely.
Today I'm going to introduce a few of the Tree Kingfishers, in deference to their numbers and their apparent venerability. Next time we'll meet the others, the fish-lovers. Why not start with the biggest ones, the kookaburras; I'm not sure if I have any African readers but I know they'll bristle at that statement. However while your Giant Kingfisher is a bit longer than the Laughing Kookaburra, the kooka is certainly more massive.
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| Laughing Kookaburras Dacelo novaeguineae, Canberra. Highly sociable, they defend territories fiercely against rival kookaburra clans with the famous territorial laugh and display flights and even physical contact if necessary. Both of its scientific names are contentious. Dacelo is an anagram of Alcedo, the Common Kingfisher genus; such levity was regarded at the time as in very poor taste. Novaeguineae is even worse; it isn't found in New Guinea and Pierre Sonnerat who claimed to have collected it there was apparently being deliberately disingenuous to exaggerate his travels - he had form, having also claimed to have shot a penguin there! |
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| Laughing Kookaburra, south coast New South Wales. The bill can be used - as here - like a crowbar to extract grubs from the soil. Most food is collected on the ground, as with most of the family, and ranges from insects and worms to lizards, snakes and mice. |
It seems that the kookaburras arose in New Guinea and at some point the Blue-winged Kookaburra entered Australia, where it remains in the tropics, while the Laughing Kookaburra evolved as a separate species and moved south into the temperate forests and woodlands.
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| Blue-winged Kookaburras Dacelo leachii behave similarly to Laughings, breeding cooperatively with the parents assisted in chick rearing by offspring from previous years, and sometimes by brothers and sisters. The call has been justifiably described by Graham Pizzey, the author of the preeminent Australian bird field guide, as "appalling". |
The Sacred Kingfisher - featured above - is the common smaller kingfisher of southern and eastern Australia and is also found well into the Pacific and eastern Indonesia. Around here it is strongly migratory; soon we should be hearing its insistent 'ek ek ek' in woodlands, as it returns from far north Queensland and even New Guinea and beyond.
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| Sacred Kingfisher with frog, Canberra. They eat pretty much any animal suitable to their size. (Faded old slide - sorry.) |
Inland the Sacred Kingfisher is replaced by the similar and closely related Red-backed Kingfisher Todiramphus pyrrhopygius, found throughout the arid inland.
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| Red-backed Kingfisher, Kings Canyon National Park, central Australia. From behind (below) we can just see its eponymous back, which is the red of a brick rather than a letter-box. Unlike Sacreds, which usually nest in tree hollows, Red-backeds generally excavate a burrow in a bank. |
Halcyon is a mostly African genus of Tree Kingfishers - and 7 of the 16 African kingfishers species belong to it. There is much mythology surrounding kingfishers - many Polynesians believed that Sacred Kingfishers controlled the waves, hence the English name - and Greek mythology was rife with it. Ceyx was the son of Hesperos, the Morning Star, married to Alcyone, daughter of Aeolus, the wind guardian. Blissfully happy, they made the mistake of comparing themselves to Zeus and Hera - big mistake actually, as Z and H turned out to be not at all happy, and punished their presumption by drowning them both with a storm. The other gods felt that this was a bit over the top and turned them into halcyons, birds generally agreed to be kingfishers. (I can't help but think they might have preferred to have been themselves again, but what would I know?) Not being very experienced in such things, Alcyone opted to nest on the beach near the waterline - her dad arranged for windless days to allow her to get away with it, hence Halcyon Days. We'll meet some of these names again next time among the fishing kingfishers.
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| The Blue-breasted Kingfisher Halcyon malimbica is a lovely bird found across western and central Africa, from primary rainforest (as here, in Budongo Forest, Uganda) to dry savannahs. As well as the normal kingfisher animal fare, it is known to eat oil palm fruits. |
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| The Grey-headed Kingfisher Halcyon leucocephala, Queen Elizabeth National Park, Uganda, is another beauty. This one is found widely across Africa and undertakes complex movements in different parts of this range. |
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| Woodland Kingfisher Halcyon senegalensis, Entebbe Botanic Gardens, Uganda. Another with a range right across sub-Saharan Africa, and migrating from the north and south into the centre of the continent in the dry. |
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| The Striped Kingfisher Halcyon chelicuti, central Cameroon, may not be as smartly dressed as some of its relatives, and is smaller, but I think it has lots of character. It too has a huge distribution. |
I hope I have whetted your appetite for these wonderful birds - back next time to talk about some of their even flashier fishing relatives, from tiny to huge.
BACK ON FRIDAY
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