Small Blue Kingfisher
Alcedo coerulescens
Tiny sky-blue kingfisher with a snowy-white throat, belly, and facial patches. Male averages bluer than female, which has a greenish cast. Inhabits a wide range of freshwater and brackish habitats, including ponds, paddies, and mangroves. Like many other small kingfishers, hovers and hunts from a perch. Call is an extremely high-pitched metallic “tzeep!”
Identification
The cerulean kingfisher is a small kingfisher with a length of 13 cm (5.1 in). The upperparts are a range of shades of blue with white lores and a prominent white patch on each side of the neck. The underparts are white with an azure-blue breast-band. The bill is blackish and the legs are dark brown. The female has duller and slightly greenish plumage and a narrower breast band.
Taxonomy
The first formal description of the cerulean kingfisher was by the French ornithologist Louis Pierre Vieillot in 1818. He coined the binomial name Alcedo coerulescens. The specific epithet coerulescens is from the Latin caerulescens meaning "bluish". The species is monotypic.
- Scientific name
- Alcedo coerulescens
- Authority
- Vieillot, 1818
- Order
- Coraciiformes
- Family
- Alcedinidae
- Genus
- Alcedo
Range and habitat
The cerulean kingfisher is native to Sumatra, Java, the Kangean Islands, Bali, Lombok and Sumbawa, all in Indonesia. It is a resident species that inhabits low-lying areas near streams, canals, flooded paddy-fields and tidal estuaries.
- Migration
- Resident species
Conservation
- Population trend
- stable
Photos
Distribution
Bird Calls
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Poorly known thistletail found only in a small area of the high Andes east of the city of Ayacucho in southern Peru. It is brown above, gray below, with a long wispy tail and a reddish-orange chin patch. It has a darker chin patch than Vilcabamba Thistletail and Puna Thistletail, and is not known to overlap with either species. It inhabits scrub and stunted forest near treeline. Song is a rapid, high-pitched trill.
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