Chocolate-backed Kingfisher
Halcyon badia
A ventriloquial forest kingfisher that is more often heard than seen as it perches in the subcanopy. Distinctive with its blood red bill, broadly chocolate-brown upperparts, white underparts, and bright blue wing patches and tail. Nests in arboreal termite mounds. Song is a series of ten or more easily imitated whistles that rise and then abruptly fall in pitch, “pew pew pew PEW PEW PEW pew pew.”
Identification
The chocolate-backed kingfisher has the typical stocky kingfisher shape with dark upper parts and pure white underparts. The head and hind neck are very dark brown, the mantle is brownish black, the back is black, the rump a brilliant iridescent blue, the upper tail coverts are black, and the tail is pale blue. The wings are dark, apart from a brilliant azure speculum formed in the outer webs of the secondary feathers. The underparts from the throat to the vent are snowy white, apart from a small blackish flank patch, and are clearly demarcated from the dark upper parts. In flight the brilliant blue rump and speculum are distinctive. The bill is red or reddish brown. Juveniles are similar to adults, except that the breast is scalloped and the bill is blackish with an orange tip.
Taxonomy
- Scientific name
- Halcyon badia
- Authority
- Verreaux, J & Verreaux, É, 1851
- Order
- Coraciiformes
- Family
- Alcedinidae
- Genus
- Halcyon
Range and habitat
The chocolate-backed kingfisher occurs across the African tropical rainforest : west of the Dahomey Gap from Sierra Leone to Ghana, then from southern Nigeria east to southern Central African Republic and western Uganda, south to the Kwango River in northern Angola. It is also found on Bioko. The chocolate-backed kingfisher is not associated with water and is a bird of primary and secondary lowland rain forest.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
Other Birds
Forest Swallow
Atronanus fuliginosus
A unique dark swallow of lowland rainforest, less commonly seen at forest edge and in montane foothills. The only swallow that can be found flying bat-like under the canopy in closed forest. Overall a dark sooty brown, with some birds, especially adult males, having brighter rufous throats. Small and compact with a short, mostly squared tail. Often found nesting under boulders, in caves, or in similar locations in the rainforest. Very similar to Square-tailed Sawwing, and some individuals are best left unidentified. Note Forest Swallow’s unique, bat-like flight, and in good light, its more brownish plumage and sometimes more rufous throat. Despite its visual similarity to sawwings, this species is most closely related to house-martins. Voice is a short, buzzy call note.
Yellow Flycatcher
Erythrocercus holochlorus
A small and colorful flycatcher with olive-yellow upperparts and yellow underparts. Found in lowland forest, mostly in the canopy. Often joins mixed-species flocks. Somewhat similar to yellow-warblers, but much smaller and found in different habitats. Similar to Livingstone’s Flycatcher, but there is very little overlap in range, and can easily be separated by the olive-green rather than rufous tail. Vocalizes frequently, giving high-pitched, chittering calls and a quick whistled song.
Namaqua Warbler
Phragmacia substriata
A prinia-like warbler with a russet-colored back and crown, a plain grayish face, and a whitish throat. The long, graduated tail and fine breast streaks are distinctive. Pairs are resident and restricted to the semi-arid Karoo, where they are specialists of reedbeds and thorn tree thickets along dry drainage lines. The species’ presence is often detected by its distinctive song, a dry sharp “tsit” rapidly followed by a sweeter accelerating rattle “tsit-trrrrrrrrrrrrr.” The similar Karoo Prinia differs from Namaqua Warbler by having a shorter scruffier tail, duller gray-brown upperparts, and boldly blotched underparts with streaking that can reach the throat. The voice is also different.
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