Hook-billed Kingfisher
Melidora macrorrhina
A fairly large, common kingfisher of wooded areas in the lowlands and foothills, even plantations. Very difficult to see. Thick, bicolored bill with a distinct hook, dark wing with large brown spots, black face with a pale stripe below the eye and a finely speckled crown. Much more often heard than seen. Calls pre-dawn and after dusk. Voice, an initial low note, followed by higher notes speeded up, “puuu! pipipi”. Sometimes sounding like dropping a ping pong ball on a table.
Identification
The hook-billed kingfisher is a large dumpy kingfisher with a length of 27 cm (11 in) and a weight of 85–110 g (3.0–3.9 oz). It has a long, white stripe below its eyes. Its underside is white. It has dull yellow feet.<p>The call and song are mainly given at night. The most common call is a long whistle followed by a series of higher pitched short notes.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the hook-billed kingfisher was by the French surgeon and naturalist René Lesson in 1827 under the binomial name Dacelo macrorrhina. The hook-billed kingfisher is now the only species placed within the genus Melidora which was introduced by Lesson in 1830. The name of the genus probably comes from the classical Greek mēlis for "yellow" and doru for "spear". The specific epithet macrorrhina is from the classical Greek makros for "long" and rhis for "nose".<p>There are three subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Melidora macrorrhina
- Authority
- (Lesson, RP, 1827)
- Order
- Passeriformes
- Family
- Meliphagidae
- Genus
- Melidora
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Behavior
The hook-billed kingfisher excavates a nest chamber in an active arboreal termite nest 3–6 m (10–20 ft) above the ground. The clutch is two white eggs which hatch asynchronously. The male helps to incubate the eggs and brood the young.<p>It feeds on insects and frogs. It may dig into the soil searching for prey in a similar manner to the shovel-billed kookaburra.
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Other Birds
Eye-ringed Parrotbill
Suthora ricketti
Gregarious long-tailed little bird. Restricted to southwestern China and adjacent northern Myanmar, where it inhabits grassy and scrubby areas, as well as bamboo stands and secondary growth, in mountains and foothills. Note the warm reddish-brown head, pale eye, darker brown wings and tail, and streaked white throat. Similar to Brown-winged Parrotbill (with which it was formerly considered one species), but note paler eyes and more contrastingly streaked breast. Moves about noisily through dense vegetation, twittering and chattering constantly.
Freckled Nightjar
Caprimulgus tristigma
Large, grayish nightjar. Both sexes show a small white mark in the outer wing. Male shows large white tail corners, while the female’s tail is plain. Found on rocky hills and outcrops, usually in savannah. Song is a loud, repeated “kow-chow.” Most similar to Eurasian Nightjar, but smaller, and lacks strong pale markings on the upperparts.
Trumpeter Hornbill
Bycanistes bucinator
A large, mostly black-and-white hornbill that occurs in thickets, dense woodland, and riverine and coastal forest. It can be surprisingly inconspicuous while eating large fruit in forest trees, but in flight it has noisy wingbeats and a far-carrying baby-like wailing “whaaaaaa waa waa” call. In flight note narrow white hind edges to the mostly dark wings; the similar Black-and-white-casqued Hornbill has a very broad white hind edge, and the Silvery-cheeked Hornbill has no white hind edge.
Start Your Bird Watching Journey
Identify a bird outdoors and keep the field guide close for your next observation.