Striped Kingfisher - BirdForum Opus

Halcyon chelicuti

Photo by Mybs
Kgalagadi, South Africa, November 2006

Identification

16 to 18 cm

• Grey brown upperparts
• Metallic blue lower back, secondary flight feathers and tail
• White wing linings with a black border
• Whitish underparts
• Buffy breast, with brown streaks
• Crown streaked dark brown
• Whitish face, throat, and back of the neck
• Bill: blackish upper mandible; reddish-orange lower mandible
  

Juvenile: similar to the adult but paler.

• • Less blue on the wings
  • Crown is darker
• Dusky tips to the breast feathers
  • Dull red lower mandible

Similar Species

Brown-hooded Kingfisher

Distribution

Sub-Saharan Africa
Western Africa: Mauritania, Senegambia, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Mali, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola
Eastern Africa: Sudan, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi
Southern Africa: Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, KwaZulu-Natal, eSwatini

Taxonomy

Subspecies^[1]

There are 2 subspecies:

• H. c. chelicuti :

• Southern Mauritania and Senegambia to Ethiopia and South Africa

• H. c. eremogiton:

• Sahara edge (central Mali) to eastern Sudan (White Nile region)

Habitat

Coastal and riverine forests and forest edges. Open bush, thornveld, dry savanna woodland and large gardens.

Behaviour

Diet

The diet includes grasshoppers, large insects, small lizards, snakes and rodents.

Breeding

Eggs are laid in a disused woodpecker or barbet hole. Both adults incubate during the day, the female taking the nightshift. The male feeds the female, holding the prey for the female to tear pieces from it.

References

1. Clements, JF. 2009. The Clements Checklist of Birds of the World. 6th ed., with updates to December 2009. Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Press. ISBN 978-0801445019.
2. Avibase
3. Wikipedia
4. BF Member observations

• List of references

Recommended Citation

• BirdForum Opus contributors. (2024) Striped Kingfisher. In: BirdForum, the forum for wild birds and birding. Retrieved 25 April 2024 from https://www.birdforum.net/opus/Striped_Kingfisher

External Links

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