Black-capped Paradise-Kingfisher
Tanysiptera nigriceps
Colorful kingfisher with very long blue or white tail streamers, rusty-red underparts, and bright red bill. Head black, wings blue with a black-bordered white stripe running down the back. Juvenile has shorter tail streamers and a black bill. Resident in Bismarck Archipelago of Papua New Guinea.
Identification
The black-capped paradise kingfisher is 35–48 cm (14–19 in) in overall length including the tail streamers and weighs from 43 to 74 g (1.5 to 2.6 oz). The sexes are alike. The adult of the nominate race has a black head, nape, ear-coverts and scapulars. The mantle, rump and two central tail feathers are white. The wings and outer tail feathers are blue. The underparts are a pale yellowish buff. The bill and feet are orange. The subspecies T. s. leucura differs only in having completely white tail feathers.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the black-capped paradise kingfisher was by the English lawyer and zoologist Philip Sclater in 1877. He coined the current binomial name Tanysiptera nigriceps. The genus Tanysiptera had been introduced by the Irish zoologist Nicholas Aylward Vigors in 1825. The name Tanysiptera is from classical Greek tanusipteros meaning "long-feathered". The specific epithet nigriceps is from the Latin niger for "black" and -ceps for "head". The black-capped paradise kingfisher has sometimes been considered as a subspecies as the buff-breasted paradise kingfisher (Tanysiptera sylvia).<p>There are two subspecies:
- Scientific name
- Tanysiptera nigriceps
- Authority
- Sclater, PL, 1877
- Order
- Coraciiformes
- Family
- Alcedinidae
- Genus
- Tanysiptera
Range and habitat
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- declining
Photos
Distribution
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